LA TRINIDAD, Benguet – Anti-Crime and Terrorism Through Community Involvement and Support (ACT-CIS) Party-list Representative and Benguet caretaker congressman Eric Go Yap recently filed House Bill (HB) 6171 which seeks to re-nationalize the La Trinidad-based Benguet General Hospital (BeGH) and to increase its bed capacity.
Yap pointed out the re-nationalization of the government hospital will allow better focus on the provision and improvement of the delivery of health care services and its existing facilities through appropriate funding support from the health department.
“Sa ngayon, ang bumubuhay sa Benguet General Hospital ay mula sa pondo ng ating probinsiya at mula sa kita ng ospital, hindi ito sapat para tugunan ang mga pangangailangang medical ng ating mga kababayan sa Benguet at sa karatig probinsiya na lumapit sa ospital para magpatingin at magpagamot ng kanilang sakit o kapansanan,” Yap stressed.
The Benguet caretaker congressman underscored the need to bring back to the national government, particularly the health department, the management, administration and operation of the hospital for its needs to be provided as numerous patients, especially the indigent ones, are being referred to the same from other hospitals for treatment.
According to him, if concerned government agencies and the local government will not be able to provide the required budget for the hospital’s effective and efficient operation, indigent patients from Benguet and other parts of the Cordillera will have to go to other hospitals outside the province to have their illnesses given appropriate treatment thus adding to their burden instead of them being treated in a publicly-administered hospitals.
Yap underscored the importance of saving the lives of sick people, thus, government should not allow that the facilities and services of the BeGH should be inadequate and insufficient.
Further, he assured the people and officialdom of Benguet he will also push for the establishment of a Malasakit Center in the Benguet hospital to bring the services of the government closer to the people of the province.
He pointed out that patients in need of medical and financial assistance will no longer have to transfer from one agency to another just to access the needed aid as the Malasakit Center will ensure this service.
Yap is one of the principal authors of House Bill No. 5477, or the bill that seeks to establish the Malasakit Center in all government hospitals in the country that was eventually signed into law as Republic Act No. 11463, now known as the Malasakit Center Law. The Malasakit Center is a one-stop shop for government medical and financial assistance for indigent patients needing such assistance.
He explained the bill is an improvement of the earlier measure filed by the older Fongwan for the increase in the hospital’s bed capacity.
By Hent
