Sen. Christopher Go (Photo from his office)
MANILA, Philippines — Sen. Christopher Go has sponsored several bills seeking to upgrade various government hospitals in the country, according to a statement he issued on Tuesday.
The COVID-19 pandemic has made the government realize the importance of improving public health facilities, especially in the provinces where such facilities are inadequate, Go said in his sponsorship on Monday on the resumption of the regular session of the Senate.
“In my rounds in various parts of the country, I saw for myself our shortage in hospital beds and equipment,” he said in Filipino. “Sometimes patients are laid out on hospital corridors. Our countrymen are in a pitiable situation.”
“In this pandemic, our problem is the shortage of hospitals, particularly ICU beds. We need to impose stricter community quarantine restrictions so that our health system will have room to breathe,” he went on.
“We also need to build temporary facilities and modular hospitals for COVID-19 cases. We don’t want to get to the point again when there are no more beds available for the sick. Our public hospitals should always be ready to serve patients.”
Go, who chairs the Senate Committee on Health and Demography, emphasized that Filipino families should be able to easily access health care services even in rural areas.
Among the bills that Go sponsored on Mondy were those increasing the bed capacity of the following hospitals:
- Sinait District Hospital in Sinait, Ilocos Sur
- a lying-in clinic in Rizal, Palawan
- Naguilian District Hospital in La Union
- Rosario District Hospital in Rosario, La Union
- East Avenue Medical Center in Quezon City
- Mayor Hilarion A. Ramiro Sr. Medical Center in Ozamiz City, Misamis Occidental
Other bills he sponsored bills proposed the following changes in some facilities:
- converting the Schistosomiasis Control and Research Hospital in Palo, Leyte, into the Governor Benjamin T. Romualdez General Hospital and Schistosomiasis Center and increase its bed capacity
- renaming the Eastern Visayas Regional Medical Center in Tacloban City into Eastern Visayas Medical Center and increasing its bed capacity
- converting the Medina Extension Hospital in Medina, Misamis Oriental into a general hospital
- upgrading the Lanao del Norte Provincial Hospital into the Lanao del Norte Regional Medical Center
- upgrading the Benguet General Hospital
Go also sponsored bills establishing more and improved government hospitals, such as the following:
- Eastern Pangasinan Regional Medical and Trauma Center
- Davao Occidental General Hospital
- Neptali Gonzales General Hospital in Mandaluyong
- Bacolod City General Hospital
“Improving health capacity and upgrading capability of hospitals in the provinces would help enhance the health and overall well-being of the entire Philippine population,” Go said.
In 2019, he also authored and sponsored the Malasakit Centers Act, which was already signed into law.
It aims to make all existing government medical assistance programs more accessible to citizens by putting together the concerned agencies under one roof — the Department of Health, the Department of Social Welfare and Development, the Philippine Health Insurance Corp., and the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office.
Under the law, all hospitals managed by the DOH and the Philippine General Hospital are mandated to open their own Malasakit Center. Hospitals run by local government units and other public hospitals may also establish their own centers provided that they meet a standard set of criteria and can guarantee the sustainability of their operations.