MEDICAL CARE. File photo of the 'medicare' hospital in the town of Brooke's Point, southern Palawan. (Photo by the Palawan PIO)
PUERTO PRINCESA CITY, Palawan -- Four new medical care (medicare) hospitals are set to open in Palawan this June to give residents in remote areas medical emergency access.
These will open in the towns of Roxas in northern Palawan, and Rizal, Narra, and Brooke’s Point in the southern area, said Saylito Purisima of the provincial government on Tuesday.
Medicare hospitals in Palawan, although open to everyone, give free services to the elderly and children belonging to poor families.
Funded PHP80-million by the Department of Health (DOH) Mimaropa Region and the Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) in close cooperation with the provincial government through the initiative of Governor Jose Alvarez, the medical care hospital projects are part of the development agenda IHELP.
IHELP stands for Infrastructure, Health, Education, Livelihood, and Protection of the Environment.
Purisima, chief of the Infrastructure Sector of IHELP, said that in May, the medicare hospitals will have soft openings to know if there are remaining issues in their facilities that need to be taken care of.
“Before the end of the year, we will also inaugurate medicare hospitals in Cuyo and Coron towns, which are already 80 percent completed,” he said.
Purisima added that though the construction of the two hospitals is still incomplete, they are already serving residents of Cuyo and Coron.
The provincial government-DOH partnership will also continue the construction of the Quezon town medicare hospital in April this year.
He did not say what caused the delay of the construction, or why it was interrupted.
Purisima also disclosed that six more medicare hospitals are up for construction in the towns of San Vicente, El Nido, and Dumaran-Araceli in northern Palawan, and Bataraza and Balabac in the southern part. (PNA)
