Make Pangasinan home to the healthiest Filipinos – Espino
CAPITOL NEWS
Lingayen – Governor Amado T. Espino Friday exhorted the province’s local officials and health care workers to make Pangasinan home to the healthiest Filipinos.
The provincial chief executive made the call when addressing the 5th provincial health summit held at the Sison Auditorium here attended by health workers in the province, mayors, councilors and barangay officials.
TOPS IN HEALTH CARE. DOH Regional Dir. Myrna C. Cabotaje (2nd from right) awards the P2.250-million prize for outstanding performance in health care from the Department of Health to Governor Amado T. Espino, Jr. (center) during the 5th Annual Provincial Health Summit and 2014 LGU Scorecard Awarding Ceremony held at Sison Auditorium in Lingayen on November 6. Joining the Governor are (from left): Provincial Liga ng mga Barangay President Amado “Pogi” I. Espino, III, Vice Gov. Jose Ferdinand Z. Calimlim, Jr. and DILG Provincial Dir. Reggie Colisao. /MVSadim
“The ball is in our hands. Let us join hands and make it happen for Pangasinan to become home to the healthiest Filipinos,” the governor urged.
“Our ultimate aim should be to put in place the vital public health programs and projects designed to make our people hale and healthy so that in the course of time, our hospitals and public health care facilities will have less and less people to treat,” he explained.
This, he continued, could only happen if the local chief executives, local sanggunians, the municipal health office, and the mayor’s key staff are equipped with the knowhow on overall health situations in their towns and regard public health care as a priority concern.
Driving home his point, Espino said, “I have always put the provincial health program as the ultimate measure of my success as governor.”
He said that Pangasinan is the only province in the country that is allocating one-fourth of its annual budget on public health care. Last year alone, the province spent a total of P712 million for health care out of P2.77 billion in total budget.
That was almost three times as much as the provincial health budget in 2007, Espino’s first year in office.
Equally important, the provincial government has pioneered the point of care enrolment of indigent patients with PhilHealth, making health care to the very poor absolutely free in the province’s public hospitals.
In providing free health care to the poor, the provincial government invested P61.6 million in Philhealth premium for them last year. This brought to life Espino’s driving belief that it is the job of the government to provide the destitute and his family quality medical care.
As a result, the provincial health office and the provincial hospital have been adjudged the only facilities in the country granted an ISO 9001:2008 certified standards in international quality management,
Among the most significant strides at upgrading health care in the province, were: the modernization of all 14 province funded hospitals including the purchase of state-of-the-art laboratory and diagnostic facilities.
From hospitals most people avoided in the past, public hospitals in Pangasinan have become the hospital of choice among its residence from the very poor to the rich.
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