DOH to set up 104 specialty medical centers

SPECIALTY HOSPITAL Pedestrians walk past the National Kidney and Transplant Institute in Quezon City in this file photo. —FILE PHOTO

The Department of Health (DOH) plans to establish more than 100 specialty centers this year as part of its efforts to capacitate rural facilities and make medical services accessible outside town centers.

The DOH targets to set up 104 more specialty centers outside Metro Manila after adding 40 more in 2022, Maria Rosario Vergeire, officer in charge of the DOH, told a recent press briefing.

In its year-end report, the DOH said the country now has a total of 46 functional specialty centers in the provinces. These included the six specialty centers completed in 2021.

Vergeire said these specialty centers were put up within hospitals to ensure that specific ailments needing special care and treatment were catered to. The project, which is under the Philippine Health Facility Development Plan 2020-2040, will give priority to rural areas where there are no specialized centers or any kind of health-care facility, she added.

An allocation of about P2.3 billion was proposed by DOH for the establishment of these centers.

As this developed, local governments must work hand in hand with the national government to ensure that the country resumes its path toward recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, through intensified vaccination and keeping in place minimum health standards, Sen. Jinggoy Estrada said on Saturday.

“As we buckle down to work after the revelry, I urge our local officials to work hand in hand with the health authorities to focus on health measures as a precaution against a new wave of COVID-19 cases,” he said.

In a statement, Estrada, chair of the Senate committee on local government, reminded local governments about the gap that the DOH needed to undertake to achieve an 80-percent coverage for COVID-19 booster shots among the populace.

“We cannot ignore the new public health threat that is before us. But while health authorities are still mulling their next moves in the coming days, we also need to intensify our campaign for more of our people to acquire booster shots, especially those in the vulnerable population,” he said.

The country cannot afford to face another COVID-19 resurgence, even as the country now prepares to return to normalcy following more than two years of restrictions due to the pandemic, he said.

“To our countrymen, let’s consider the safety and welfare of our families so that, as much as possible, we can avoid the imposition of strict safety protocols,” he said.

But in an interview, Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel III said he was baffled by the DOH’s call for an extension of the state of calamity declaration, saying the government already has a system in place to respond to any resurgence of the COVID-19 disease.

“I cannot fathom or appreciate the reasoning behind this, because whether we like it or not, a calamity can happen, and our people are no longer scared by COVID-19. It has come to the point that COVID-19 is now being treated like ordinary flu or [tuberculosis], which are not used as bases for the declaration of a state of calamity,” he said.After more than two years of experience under a pandemic, the government is ready to address any surge in cases, with better-trained personnel, better-equipped facilities and a populace that is more aware, Pimentel said.

“If our present laws on government procurement have become unrealistic, the DOH and the other agencies can speak up and tell Congress to amend the law, and not use calamities as a reason to pressure lawmakers for the passage of the law,” he said. —With a report from Melvin Gascon INQ

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