Public health services expansion pushed
The senator highlighted the establishment of more Super Health Centers across the country which will enable the government to assist more underprivileged Filipinos
Daily TribuneThe senator highlighted the establishment of more Super Health Centers across the country which will enable the government to assist more underprivileged Filipinos
Noting how better health can help improve a family's socioeconomic conditions towards achieving pandemic recovery, Senator Christopher "Bong" Go continues to push for the improvement and expansion of the country's public health services, especially for the poor.
Go, who chairs the Senate Committee on Health, said that it is for this reason that he is working toward the enhancement and improved access to public healthcare services in the country.
The senator highlighted the establishment of more Super Health Centers across the country which will enable the government to assist more underprivileged Filipinos, particularly those living in remote areas. There is an allocated budget under the Health Facilities Enhancement Program of DoH for the construction of 307 SHCs in 2022 and more than 300 SHCs are planned to be constructed in 2023.
The Super Health Center is an upgraded version of the rural health unit. It offers health services including database management, out-patient, birthing, isolation, diagnostic (laboratory: x-ray and 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.
Go also cited that medical assistance programs from the government are more conveniently available through the 153 Malasakit Centers across the country.
Malasakit Centers host concerned government agencies with programs that provide convenient access to medical assistance for Filipino patients, particularly the poor and indigent. The partner agencies are the Department of Social Welfare and Development, Department of Health, Philippine Health Insurance Corporation, and Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office.
Malasakit Centers
Signed into law in December 2019, Republic Act 11463 or the Malasakit Centers Act, which Go primarily authored and sponsored in his first few months as senator, institutionalized the Malasakit Centers program.
Go vowed to push for more people-centered measures on top of the bills he already filed, particularly those relating to health. He is also pushing for free annual medical check-up for all Filipinos and a comprehensive dialysis benefit package.
Apart from these, Go also pushed for measures instituting the Emergency Medical Services System and amending the Insurance Code to allow better supervision over Health Maintenance Organizations.
As this developed, Go and former president Rodrigo Duterte visited Balay Dangupan in Davao City on Friday, December 23, to spread the holiday cheer to its orphans and staff by checking on their welfare while handing out gifts and other giveaways.
Balay Dangupan was established in 2018 and it is a crisis intervention facility of the City Government of Davao that serves as a temporary substitute home for children.
Committed to uplift Filipinos' lives in times of crisis, Duterte and Go distributed Christmas baskets, meals, gift certificates, and balls for basketball and volleyball to 49 children and 29 shelter workers.
Meanwhile, to promote the welfare of the country's healthcare workers, Go once again filed his Barangay Health Workers Compensation and Incentives Bill and his Advanced Nursing Education Bill. The senator likewise refiled his bills establishing the Center for Disease Control and Prevention and the Virology Science and Technology Institute of the Philippines.
