Healthcare inspired by Cuba reaches rural Pampanga

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO—The provincial government is rolling out its Cuban-inspired preventive health-care system, touted as the first in the country, in remote villages of Candaba town by the end of this month.

Patterned after Cuba’s polyclinics, the provincial government is set to deploy eight mobile clinics specializing in women’s and eye health, and which would serve as pharmacies, said Gov. Lilia Pineda, who announced the program launch on Thursday.

The mobile clinics, Pineda said, would also offer X-ray and blood test services.

The clinics would be manned by government doctors and nurses, backed by health professionals and specialists from the private sector. They would offer breast and cervical cancer screenings, orientation on responsible parenthood, tuberculosis checks and urine tests for grade school pupils.

The preventive health-care program has an initial funding of P100 million, according to Pineda.

She said the Cuban health system is worth adopting because Cubans have one of the world’s highest life expectancies at 77 years as cited by the World Health Organization (WHO).

According to WHO, the centerpiece of the Cuban health system is the polyclinic. There are at least 498 polyclinics in Cuba “serving a catchment area of between 30,000 and 60,000 people.”

The polyclinics, WHO said, also serve as “organizational hubs” for neighborhood-based family doctors and nurses’ offices and as research and teaching facilities for health education.

The polyclinics began operating a decade after the Cuban revolution in the 1950s.

Pineda said members of the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) have made good use of their insurance judging from the P688 million in receivables from PhilHealth in 2015.

“It also showed that many Kapampangan are sick so we need to shift to prevention and early detection [of diseases],” said the governor.

Non-PhilHealth members have been able to avail themselves of insurance through the provincial government’s 10 district hospitals and provincial hospital as points of care for PhilHealth services.

Nanay (Mother) community volunteers are tasked with identifying and validating villagers needing medical help, Pineda said. —TONETTE OREJAS