BORONGAN CITY — The Eastern Samar provincial government is pushing for the creation of a digital profile for all residents to improve healthcare planning and ensure proper allocation of resources.

Provincial board member Byron Suyot said all constituents should be included in an updated community-based monitoring system to ensure that no town runs out of essential medical supplies.

Suyot said accurate and updated data would allow the government to determine how many residents in each barangay require medicines for conditions such as diabetes and hypertension.

The proposal was discussed during a provincial health board meeting on Monday, which Suyot presided over, focusing on strategies to improve healthcare services across the province.

The board is adopting a “bottom-up” approach, emphasizing that health programs should be based on the specific needs of communities at the barangay level.

It is also pushing for more local health centers to be accredited by the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation to improve access to affordable maintenance medicines through the PhilHealth Gamot program.

“The goal is to make healthcare as accessible as possible so that people don't have to travel far for their basic medical needs,” Suyot said.

The health board also tackled the nutrition status of schoolchildren following a report by the Second Congressional Commission on Education, which identified Eastern Samar as having the third-highest prevalence of stunting among provinces at 16.86 percent.

Dr. Catalino P. Dotollo Jr., regional head of the National Nutrition Council in Eastern Visayas, said malnutrition rates are declining but progress remains slow.

He said stunting, where children are shorter than expected for their age, remains a concern, particularly in Borongan City, although improvements are being seen. He added that the province also faces cases of wasting, where children are underweight for their height.