DOH seeks additional P10B budget for health facilities enhancement

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Health (DOH) is asking lawmakers for an additional P10-billion budget for its Health Facilities Enhancement Program (HFEP) next year.

During the DOH’s 2021 budget briefing at the House of Representatives Friday, Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said his agency had proposed a P45 billion HFEP budget for 2021 but only P4.7 billion was approved with a P5.5 billion under unprogrammed funds.

“We are requesting this to address the concerns of several members of Congress on additional support for improving the infrastructure of our hospitals, rural health units, LGU (local government unit) hospitals, health care facilities, as well as military hospitals, especially that the COVID-19 pandemic has affected the functionality of our infrastructure and implementation of UHC law,” Duque said.

HFEP aims to upgrade health facilities as well as to provide training to health professionals to improve public access to quality health care.

The DOH made the appeal as the country continues to struggle with the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), which has infected 276,289 people as of Thursday.

Of the total cases nationwide, 208,096 are recoveries while 4,785 are deaths.

/MUF