BAGUIO CITY – Dr. Virginia Narciso, licensing officer for the Department of Health–Cordillera Administrative Region (DOH-CAR) provided updates on the Center of Health Development–CAR accomplishments on licensing of primary care facilities during the Kapihan sa Baguio press conference held at the DOH-CAR recently.
In Baguio City, there are 13 licensed government facilities and one licensed private facility. Twenty-three of the 27 primary care facilities in Abra are licensed while there are 13 licensed rural health facilities in Benguet. Similarly, Kalinga has 13 licensed health centers, while all of the 11 facilities in Ifugao are licensed, while 8 of the 10 health facilities are licensed in Mountain Province.
Baguio City has 16 facilities, including the 13 licensed facilities. Two weeks ago, a super health center was launched in Aurora Hill and tts licensing is in progress. The remaining two are under construction. Three rural health units are currently under construction in Abra while two rural health units are under construction in Mountain Province
There are a total of 89 licensed facilities in the CAR, one of which is a private hospital.
This comprises 90 percent of the primary care facilities in the region. Five from the 89 facilities were selected by the DOH-CAR as examples other primary care facilities should follow. These are; Pinsao health center in Baguio city, Tineg health center in Abra, Kibungan health center in Benguet, Calanasan health center in Apayao, and the rural health unit of Aguinaldo. The exemplary primary health care facilities were each given an emblem signifying the facility is licensed and observes good practices.
The licensing of primary health care facilities is in implementation of the universal health care law, signed February 20, 2019 by former president Rodrigo Duterte. Dr Narciso emphasizes the importance of licensing as it regulates the standards and requirements of a health facility to operate.
The target during the year 2020 for DOH was to achieve licensure for 70% of the primary care facilities per region. However, the current goal of the DOH is to target all unlicensed primary care facilities. By Milles Rodriguez