Prov’l Gov’t hospitals at par with first-class private hospitals in Pangasinan
CAPITOL NEWS
From barely neglected public health care facilities eight years ago, the 14 hospitals owned and managed by the provincial government are now at par with first-class private hospitals in the province.
This is how Dr. Policarpio Manuel, Pangasinan Provincial Hospital (PPH) chief, assessed the status of the facilities after the massive construction and renovation spearheaded by Governor Amado T. Espino, Jr.
The provincial hospital located in Bolingit, San Carlos City which is the biggest of all provincial government – owned hospitals, according to Dr. Manuel, is one of only two hospitals in Pangasinan that received the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) certification. The other one is the Region 1 Medical Center in Dagupan City.
With the reforms in placed, public hospitals in Pangasinan have been branded as “hospitals of choice” and have become favorite destinations for benchmarking activities of best practices in hospital management of various local government units in the country, Dr. Manuel said.
“From only seven buildings in 2006, PPH now has more than 30 existing buildings that house various vital medical sections that include a dialysis center, laboratory facilities, a state-of-the-art CT-Scan, modern operating room, intensive care unit, OB-Gyne section, and other vital health services,” Dr. Manuel said.
It was learned that the Php50-million two-storey building at the PPH compound that will house the emergency room, operating room and intensive care unit nears its completion.
PPH has even surpassed the 150 maximum bed capacity prescribed by the Department of Health (DOH), averaging more than 450 patients daily, Dr. Manuel said, as he attributed the influx of patients to the “trust and confidence of Pangasinenses to the quality of healthcare services in PPH.”
A major factor that draws more and more patients seeking medical attention to the 14 hospitals is the Point-of-Care (POC) program, a priority undertaking of the Espino administration. This involves the automatic or instant health insurance coverage of marginal families once they get admitted in any of the hospitals operated by the province.
The provincial government has earmarked Php60 million annually for the POC program.
To augment the capability of provincial government hospitals to respond to the needs of patients for transportation and emergency response, the provincial government distributed 14 units of brand new Toyota Hi-Ace GL Grandia ambulance to all district and community hospitals of the province in the first quarter of this year.
From only one rickety ambulance unit per hospital in 2007, community hospitals now have an average of three ambulances while district hospitals have four each.
Pangasinan attained big strides in health care delivery and hospital management with the conferment of the Regional Development Council of the regional award for best practices in health care and hospital management to the local government unit of Pangasinan in 2010. /Mark Gerry Naval Oblanca
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