Friday, October 3, 2008

Gov. Espino wants Pangasinenses as Healthiest Filipinos

Gov. Amado T. Espino, Jr. bared that he wants Pangasinan to be the province of the healthiest Filipinos in this country.

The governor made this bold statement in his keynote address during the first Pangasinan Health Summit held last September 25-26 at Oxford Hotel in Clark Freeport Zone in Angeles, Pampanga.

“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.

Gov. Espino has considered health and well-being of the Filipino people as his utmost priority.

During the summit, the governor said that he has put the provincial health program as the ultimate measure of his success on his first term as governor. “This is based on my firm belief that the most destitute person in our province is the poor man who is sick.”

The governor laid out what he has so far accomplished for attending to the health care of the people of Pangasinan.

He said that over the past 15 months, “the provincial government has exerted earnest efforts 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.

“In short, only certified indigent families are enrolled by the province, regardless of their political color, or party affiliation,” he said.

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 bared that all wards, whether for pay or for charity, will be air-conditioned. “Who said that it is only the rich that deserve air-conditioned accommodations?”, he stressed.

“Our ultimate goal, among others, is to make sure that no pregnant woman will be left to deliver her baby at hom4, but instead will invariably receive competent care and attention in a government birthing facility.

Governor Espino also envisions to make the provincial hospital in San Carlos City 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.
The health summit also serves the opportunity for Gov. Espino to 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 is also 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 disclosed. (PIO)

No comments:

Post a Comment