In line with his commitment to help capacitate and establish more public health facilities that would benefit Filipinos, Senator Christopher "Bong" Go personally attended the groundbreaking ceremony of the Nabunturan Super Health Center in Davao de Oro last Thursday, 22 December.

The senator was instrumental in pushing for the budget of the Super Health Center and hundreds more such facilities nationwide.

In his speech, Go, who heads the Senate Committee on Health and Demography, expressed his confidence that through the Super Health Centers, the government would be able to provide basic health services to more Filipinos in need, particularly those in remote areas.

Go earlier cited that the government has allocated sufficient funds under the 2022 Health Facilities Enhancement Program for the construction of 307 Super Health Centers nationwide. He has also successfully pushed for more SHCs to be funded under the 2023 national budget.

Super Health Centers offer health services including database management, out-patient, birthing, isolation, isolation, diagnostic (laboratory: X-ray, ultrasound), pharmacy and ambulatory surgical unit.

Other available services are eye, ear, nose and throat service, oncology centers, physical therapy and rehabilitation center and telemedicine, where remote diagnosis and treatment of patients will be done.

Citing how the pandemic caught the country's health sector off-guard, Go supported the construction of three other Super Health Centers in the province.

Malasakit Centers

Meanwhile, the senator also encouraged those in need of medical assistance to seek the services of the Malasakit Centers located at Compostela Valley Provincial Hospital branches in Laak, Montevista, Maragusan, and Pantukan; and the Davao Regional Medical Center in Tagum City.

A brainchild of Go, the Malasakit Centers program provides for one-stop shops where concerned agencies, such as the Department of Social Welfare and Development, Department of Health, Philippine Health Insurance Corporation and Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office, are brought under one roof to ensure that medical assistance programs are more conveniently within the reach of poor and indigent Filipinos.

The program was institutionalized under the Malasakit Centers Act of 2019, which Go principally authored and sponsored. To date, there are 153 centers that have benefitted millions of Filipinos nationwide.