LA TRINIDAD, Benguet – Rep. Ronald M. Cosalan sourced out some P12 million from various government agencies for health and social services assistance to residents from the different parts of the province seeking financial assistance from his office.
The three-term lawmaker revealed that P4 million each incorporated in the budgets of the Benguet General Hospital and the Baguio General Hospital and Medical Center primarily for the provision of assistance to patients confined in the said hospitals needing financial assistance from his office.
Further, some P1 million was included in next year’s budget of the Philippine Heart Center purposely to cater to the financial requirements of indigent patients from the province who need treatment in the Quezon City-based hospital while P3 million was included in the budget of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) to be granted as financial assistance to individuals in crisis situation.
“We are alarmed over the increasing number of indigent patients seeking assistance from our office for the various treatment of their diagnosed illnesses, particularly dialysis treatment, that is why we made sure that there will be an increase in the funds that we will include in the budgets of our existing tertiary hospitals in Baguio and Benguet where our patients are usually confined and treated for their illnesses,” Cosalan stressed.
The congressman pointed out he has to resort to reducing the number of sessions being funded by his office for patients requesting financial assistance from him because of the significant increase in the number of patients having dialysis treatment who frequently line up in his office to seek for help, thus, he appealed to the patients for utmost understanding on the reduced funded sessions as they can always come back anytime to renew their requests for financial assistance.
According to him, he wants to stretch the available funds allotted for the purpose of financial assistance so that the remaining funds could last until December this year before the new budget becomes available next year so that there will be continuity in the provisions of financial assistance to the deserving indigent patients requesting for assistance.
Cosalan called on patients seeking assistance for their health concerns and those individuals in crisis situation to make sure that their documents to support their request is complete when filing their requests to his office so that the referral to the concerned agencies could be done the soonest for them to immediately avail of the available assistance.
For this year, Cosalan admitted he infused some P2.5 million each only in the budget of the BeGH and BGHMC for his constituents for financial assistance for their health problems which he claimed is not actually sufficient because of the enormous demand from the rapidly increasing number of patients with health concerns, thus, the need to increase the same budget in next year’s appropriations.
He called on those individuals who will not be able to avail of funding assistance from his office because of the depleted funds to understand the situation and try to make their requests earlier next year once the budget will be operational.
By HENT
