CLARK, Pampanga–Judge me by the people’s health.

Gov. Amado Espino Jr. is ready to be evaluated on his performance as the province’s leader based on the health of Pangasinenses.

In his key-note address during the first Pangasinan Health Summit held last September 25-26 at Oxford Hotel inside the Clark Freeport Zone in Angeles City, Espino said health and well-being of the population is his top priority and the provincial health program could be the ultimate measure of his success on his first term as governor.

“If we sincerely wish to give the best kind of care and service to our people, and if only we put our minds to it, we would soon have in Pangasinan the healthiest group of Filipinos that ever lived in this country,” he said.

He said he believes that the most destitute person in our province is the poor man who is sick.

One of the key projects under the health program is to achieve a universal enrolment of indigent families in Philhealth.

By the end of 2007, the province had enrolled 26,096 indigent families. As of September 22, 2008, the total number of certified indigent families enrolled solely by the provincial government has reached 84,088.

The selection of indigent families being used by the provincial government, according to the governor is the living standards survey or LSS, an instrument developed by the USAID to determine the economic status of families.

The governor also said that all the 14 provincial government-owned hospitals are now in various stages of rehabilitation and improvement.

“Each of them will have a separate birthing or neo-natal care facility, a better-equipped laboratory, an ultrasound unit, an ECG, a functional x-ray machine, among others,” he said.

The provincial hospital in San Carlos City is also envisioned as the benchmark for hospital operations in Pangasinan, even for the best private hospital in the province.

The PPH will soon have a dialysis center with 12 dialysis machines.

The governor said that there is also a need to strengthen the capability of the province to promote good health, and healthy lifestyles and practices, and to invest more in disease prevention through an aggressive public health program.

During the summit, Espino thanked the European Community (EC), United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Department of Health (DOH) for including Pangasinan as one of the 16 beneficiaries for health assistance under the FOURmula One for Health Strategy.

FOURmula One supports the province in four aspects such as: services delivery, financing, regulation and good governance.

The support agencies already granted P17.7-million to the province wherein part of it was spent for local trainings and some will be used to further boost the renovation of 14 government-owned hospitals.

The first Pangasinan Health Summit was funded by the European Community.

The EC and the DOH has allotted some P140-million grant for Pangasinan.

“The latest evaluation across the country reveals that Pangasinan ranked number two along with Eastern Samar in the overall implementation of the FOURmula One for Health Program,” the governor said.—LM

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