First ‘super health center’ soon to rise in Camarines Sur

Sen. Bong Go Senate PRIB file photo

NAGA CITY — A government health facility dubbed as “super health center” will be operational soon at Concepcion Pequeña village in this city in Camarines Sur province.

Senator Christopher Lawrence “Bong” Go, chairman on the House committee on health, led the groundbreaking ceremony for the facility with Mayor Nelson Legacion on Saturday, June 4.

“This is the first super health center out of 18 structures that will be constructed in Camarines Sur province and this would benefit the people a lot because of its accesibility to medical services,” Go told reporters in an ambush interview.

He said some 629 super health centers will be built in different locations in the country that will be operational in two years.

“We have already [built] 307 in 2022 and the rest will be constructed this 2023,” he said.

Go described a super health center as “a medium type polyclinic usually bigger than the rural health unit wherein the patients can avail X-ray, dental and birthing services.”

A budget of P10 million is allocated by the national government for each super health center project that will be erected in strategic locations nationwide.

Meanwhile, Go said he is also working on ways to further increase the salary of health workers all over the country, particularly the nurses, so that they will not leave the country.

In 2019, Go authored and co-sponsored a measure in the Senate that was enacted into Republic Act No. 11466, otherwise known as the “Salary Standardization Law 5”. The law gives civilian government employees salary increases broken down in tranches.

“They deserve compensation. Maybe that’s why they prefer to work and it is understable so we really need to help the nurses. In fact, I already filed in the Senate the Advance Nursing Education bill. This is an additional curriculum to encourage them to work here in the country,” he added.  Michael Jaucian, Inquirer Southern Luzon

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