GROUNDBREAKING. Senator Christopher Lawrence Go (middle), chairman of the Committee on Health in the Senate, and other officials pose during a groundbreaking ceremony for a Super Health Center in Barangay San Vicente Umingan, Pangasinan on Tuesday (April 18, 2023). This is the ninth center to be constructed in the province funded in 2022. (Photo courtesy of Senator Bong Go Facebook page)
UMINGAN, Pangasinan – Another super health center in Pangasinan, the ninth so far in the province, will soon rise in Barangay San Vicente in this town to provide basic health needs, including specialized health services at the local level.
During a groundbreaking ceremony on Tuesday, Senator Christopher Lawrence Go, chair of the Senate Committee on Health, said the super health center in the town is one of the 307 centers in the country that are being funded through the 2022 national budget, with help from the Department of Health (DOH).
“Natutuwa po ako na ang napili ay sa malalayong lugar dahil nais po nating ilapit ang serbisyo medical sa mga kababayan na malalayong lugar, iyong mga nasa fourth, fifth, and sixth class municipalities na walang pondo para magpatayo ng ospital (I am glad that those chosen are strategic areas in far-flung areas because we really wanted to make medical services accessible to the people who are in fourth, fifth, and sixth class municipalities that have no funds to construct hospitals),” he said.
Go explained that the super health centers are medium-type polytechnic clinics that have an out-patient department, a laboratory, and an X-ray and ultrasound equipment. These clinics also provide birthing, diagnostic, pharmaceutical and emergency services, among others.
“Mas maliit sa ospital pero mas malaki sa rural heath unit (RHU). Ang local government unit (LGU) ang mamahala, i-implement ng DOH at i-turn over sa LGU at sila na mag-operate (It is smaller than a hospital but bigger than an RHU. The LGU will manage the center, the DOH will implement the project and will turn it over to the LGU which will operate the center),” he said.
He said funding for the 307 super health centers, nine of which are in Pangasinan, came from the 2022 national budget. Meanwhile, funding for 322 more, 10 of which will be in Pangasinan, will come from the 2023 national budget.
Among the health centers in Pangasinan funded through the 2022 budget are the ones in Alaminos City, Basista, Manaoag, Mapandan, Laoac, Pozorrubio, Asingan and Balungao towns.
The super health centers scheduled for 2023 will be those in Agno, Alcala, Bani, Calasiao, Malasiqui, San Fabian, San Quintin, San Manuel, Sison and Urbiztondo towns.
In a statement, Director Paula Paz Sydiongco of the Department of Health Center for Health Development Ilocos Region said the implementation and construction of super health care centers will provide a higher standard of care than a regular rural health center.
"This would also help the secondary and tertiary hospitals as their outpatient services and emergency services will be lessened as the super health care centers will be the ones that will give the primary medical need of the residents in the communities,” Sydiongco said.
She added that the the objective of the centers is to enable local health care facilities of local government units to provide basic health care services and accommodate patients needing surgery and specialized health care services which will lay the foundation of our goal and mandate, that is ‘Universal Health Care For all Filipinos’. (PNA)
