Go pushes for more health access

SEN. Christopher Lawrence “Bong” Go, with his fellow lawmaker Sen. Robinhood Padilla, on Friday, August 12 attended the groundbreaking ceremony for the San Joaquin Super Health Center in Iloilo as part of his commitment to providing more disadvantaged Filipinos better access to quality yet affordable health care services.

Alongside the Department of Health, Go has initiated the establishment of several Super Health Centers nationwide, underscoring the crucial role of such facilities in improving the delivery of effective health care services to more Filipinos, especially in the rural areas.

As chairman of the Senate Committee on Health and Demography and vice chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance, Go had pushed for the allocation of nearly P3.6 billion funds under the 2022 Health Facilities Enhancement Program to construct 305 Super Health Centers throughout the country.

“As your chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, I am ready to hear and to help you with whatever needs of your city, municipality, and the province of Iloilo. And I am happy to announce that you will be having seven Super Health Centers (in the province of Iloilo) including our groundbreaking now in San Joaquin,” shared Go in his speech.

Citing how the pandemic became an eye-opener for the government to invest more in health care, Go stressed how important it is for disadvantaged Filipinos, especially those residing in farflung communities, to have access to quality public health services.

The Super Health Center is a medium version of a polyclinic yet an improved version of the rural health unit. The services available in the center include database management, out-patient, birthing, isolation, diagnostic (laboratory: X-ray, ultrasound), pharmacy and ambulatory surgical unit. Other available services are eye, ear, nose, and throat (EENT) service; oncology centers; physical therapy and rehabilitation center; and telemedicine, where remote diagnosis and treatment of patients will be done.

Aside from San Joaquin, Go also welcomed the construction of Super Health Centers in the towns of Anilao, Carles, Igbaras, Maasin, Pavia and Sara, and Iloilo City.

After the groundbreaking, the two senators, together with their team, distributed grocery packs, masks, vitamins, meals and shirts to 500 struggling individuals, mainly composed of barangay health workers. They also gave away shoes, bicycles, phablets, watches, and balls for volleyball and basketball to select individuals.

On the same day, Go and Padilla visited the town of Guimbal to help extend livelihood support to more than a thousand struggling residents.

Go has also recently pushed for several measures that are aimed at enhancing the country’s health system, including a bill providing benefits and compensation to barangay health workers; measures providing free annual medical check-ups and dialysis to Filipinos; the Advanced Nursing Education Bill; a measure establishing an Emergency Medical Services System; bills establishing the Center for Disease Control and Prevention and the Virology Science and Technology Institute of the Philippines; and a measure which seeks to establish Drug Abuse Treatment and Rehabilitation Centers nationwide.