Build specialty hospitals, improve health benefit packages – Marcos

By Ma. Teresa Montemayor, Philippine News Agency

In his third State of the Nation Address (SONA) on Monday, Marcos said more than 400,000 Filipinos are afflicted with cancer and to help them in their fight to live, specialty hospitals are needed. (File Photo: Bongbong Marcos/Facebook)

MANILA – President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. has prioritized the establishment of specialty hospitals, health centers and mobile clinics to bring quality services to the poor.

In his third State of the Nation Address (SONA) on Monday, Marcos said more than 400,000 Filipinos are afflicted with cancer and to help them in their fight to live, specialty hospitals are needed.

“The University of the Philippines-Philippine General Hospital (UP-PGH) Cancer Center is the first public-private-partnership to be approved in this administration,” Marcos said.

Together with the Philippine Cancer Center of the DOH (Department of Health) which broke ground in March, the two specialty hospitals will soon join the national fight against cancer, Marcos added.

A state-of-the-art cancer hospital with 300 beds will be built inside the UP-PGH compound in Manila with an approved project cost of PHP9.49 million.

The UP-PGH will provide free clinical services to sponsored patients in a dedicated 150-bed the PGH area.

Meanwhile, the private partner will provide clinical services to private self-paying patients in a dedicated 150-bed the private area.

“Habang ang mga modernong ospital na ito ay ginagawa pa, patuloy tayo sa pagdadagdag at pagpapataas ng kalidad ng ating mga ospital at mga specialty centers (While these modern hospitals are under construction, we continue to add and to complete the quality of our hospitals and specialty centers),” Marcos said.

More than 20 Bagong Urgent Care and Ambulatory Service (BUCAS) Centers have also been established nationwide to decongest public hospitals and to provide competent ambulatory care, especially for the poor with health conditions that do not require hospital admission.

With the assistance of local government units, Marcos said the DOH is building more Super Health Centers.

He added the DOH will ensure that each province has a mobile clinic so that Filipinos in far-flung areas can avail of laboratory exams and other basic medical services for free.

Medicines, health benefit packages 

The Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) has likewise increased the number of free generic medicines from 21 to 53 to help outpatients with their monthly expenses for maintenance medicines.

Some of the new medicines included in the list are for hypertension, nerve pain and epileptic seizures.

To address the increasing cases and higher cost of treatments, PhilHealth doubled the benefit package rates for severe diseases like acute stroke and pneumonia.

“Ang limit na ngayon para sa mga kundisyon na ito ay itinaas na hanggang pitumpu’t anim na libong piso at siyamnapung libong piso (The limits for these conditions were increased up to PHP76,000 and PHP90,000),” Marcos said.

For breast cancer, the benefit package rate increased over 1,000 percent from PHP100,000 to PHP1.4 million.

Currently, the PhilHealth is working on the improvement of colon cancer package rates and the inclusion of chemotherapy for cancers of the throat, liver, ovaries and prostate.

Human resources

Apart from aggressive hiring strategies, the DOH enhanced the medical and allied health programs and allocated seed funds for public medical schools.

To support the medical and nursing professions, the agency launched scholarships, reviews and upskilling programs.

Marcos said these aim to strengthen and increase human resources for the health sector.

“As part of our recalibrated health approach towards prevention and healthy habits, we are prioritizing vaccinations, nutrition, mental well-being, and active and healthy lifestyles,” he said.

He added that the DOH would continue to resolve the vaccination backlog among children, especially in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao and the Western Visayas.