Senator Christopher ‘Bong’ Go is pushing for the establishment of specialty hospitals nationwide to bring quality health services to more rural communities.
“Specialty hospital or specialty center, in having additional access to specialist services, our countrymen will no longer be burdened wherever they are because it would be nearer. They no longer need to travel to Manila to get treatment for heart, lung or kidney disease. The important thing is to deliver government service to the people,” Go said.
The chair of the Senate Committee on Health and Demography acknowledged that specialty hospitals like the Philippine Heart Center, Lung Center of the Philippines, Philippine Children’s Medical Center and National Kidney and Transplant Institute are concentrated in Metro Manila, depriving many patients from the provinces of services from medical specialists.
The senator reiterated his support for President Ferdinand ‘Bongbong’ Marcos Jr.’s call to establish more specialty hospitals or centers outside Metro Manila to address the gaps in healthcare across the country.
“I agree and support the President in his goal. We know the need. But it is also necessary to study how to quickly and effectively bring the service of specialty hospitals to our countrymen,” he said.
Go underscored the importance of investing in quality health services.
“Let us remember that we are in the stage of economic recovery from loss of livelihood caused by the pandemic,” he said. “If there is no help from the government, especially if it is hard to get it, the entire family is affected. Children’s studies will be interrupted. Properties will be pawned like house, car, farmland, etc.
Go has been consistently pushing for the establishment of more Super Health Centers and Malasakit Centers nationwide, highlighting how these centers are helping millions of poor and indigent Filipinos.
Malasakit Centers are one-stop shops where patients can conveniently avail medical assistance programs offered by the government. Go is the principal author and sponsor of the Malasakit Centers Act. There are now 152 such centers nationwide.
Meanwhile, Super Health Centers are medium versions of polyclinics and are bigger than rural health units, which offer basic services such as out-patient, birthing, isolation, diagnostic (laboratory: x-ray, ultrasound), pharmacy, and ambulatory surgical unit, among others.