CHARITY. Senator Christopher Lawrence “Bong” Go talks to a patient queuing outside the Malasakit Center at the Eastern Visayas Regional Medical Center in Tacloban City during his visit on Thursday (March 18, 2021). The center has served 104,565 indigent patients in the past three years. (PNA photo by Lizbeth Ann Abella)
TACLOBAN CITY – The Malasakit Center set up at the Eastern Visayas Regional Medical Center (EVRMC) here has served 104,565 indigent patients in the past three years.
The growing number of assisted poor patients has encouraged the central government to strengthen the Malasakit Center program, Senator Christopher Lawrence “Bong” Go said in an interview Thursday night.
“The program is not just about helping poor patients. It is also about health care financing, one of the pillars of Universal Health Care. The national government has been providing roughly a month’s worth of operating expenses of hospitals to run the Malasakit Center,” he told reporters after his visit at EVRMC.
Go, author of Republic Act 11463, or the Malasakit Center Act of 2019, visited the health facility to check its operation as he pledged to provide PHP10 million to augment funds of the EVRMC Malasakit Center.
“This is our way of helping people who need dialysis, those suffering (from) cancer, and other lifestyle diseases,” he added.
Go said patients who need complicated surgical procedures that cannot be performed at the EVRMC can ask assistance directly from his office to avail of medical aid, including transportation costs to hospitals in Metro Manila.
The EVRMC Malasakit Center began operations on May 22, 2018, the first in the Eastern Visayas region.
The one-stop-shop is manned by staff members of the departments of social welfare and health, Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office, Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp., and Philippine Health Insurance Corp.
It makes a unified requirement system possible, aside from the unified, single-window application form.
The centers’ operation is primarily funded by the socio-civic funds of the Office of the President. (PNA)
