BONTOC, Mountain Province – The national government needs at least P182 billion to improve the delivery of basic health services and decongest overcrowded health facilities in the different parts of the country by 2022.
Senator Joseph Victor Ejercito, chairman of the Senate committee on health, pointed out considering that the government has inadequate resources, lawmakers agreed that Congress will provide an annual appropriation of P60 billion to guarantee the improvement of the delivery of basic services and facilitate the expansion of decongested provincial health facilities in the different parts of the country.
Ejercito arrived in the province on board his big bike and served as one of the guests of honor and speaker during the celebration of the province’s 14th Lang-ay festival last Saturday.
“We assure the people of Mountain Province that being an adopted son, we will work out the sourcing out of whatever available funds for the expansion of your health facilities to ensure that it will be capable of attending to patients with complicated health problems,” Senator Ejercito stressed.
The senator claimed that the current ratio of health facilities to the number of patients is 1:1,000 which is considered to be alarming considering that almost all the health facilities in the country are congested, thus, the projection of the lawmakers once the national government will be able to provide the annual appropriation specifically for health facilities will be a ratio of 1:800 which will be close to the ideal ratio of 1:500.
According to him, in his previous visits around the country, the common problem of government health facilities is congestion aside from the inadequate units of health equipment, thus, patients are being deprived of the quality of health services supposed to be rendered to them by the health personnel assigned in the said institutions.
He explained lawmakers agreed to his proposal to continue providing sufficient funding for health in future budgets of the national government so that there will be a significant improvement in the delivery of health care services, especially in the countryside, for people to be treated of their illnesses and continue their good life in the places where they are situated.
Among the priority health projects being funded by the present administration is for the expansion of existing provincial hospitals, upgrading of rural health units and the employment of health personnel who will be deployed around the country to guarantee the delivery of quality health services to the people in the future.
The lawmaker underscored health is one of the basic needs of people that is why the government needs to heavily invest in the provisions of health services for people to be productive citizens of the country and for them to be able to contribute in the desired growth and development in the countryside through their own established economic activities.
He assured residents and visitors that there will come a time that government hospitals even in the remotest area of the country will be able to cater to the complicated health needs of patients seeking assistance from the said facilities once the national government will be able to provide the required funding for the immediate rehabilitation and upgrading of existing health facilities in the different parts of the country during the remaining years of the present administration. By HENT
