Go cites need to strengthen health care system

MANILA, Philippines — Sen. Bong Go yesterday stressed the need for the government to strengthen the health care system as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to hit the country.

Go, chair of the Senate committee on health, highlighted the need to upgrade health facilities as 15 of his sponsored local hospital bills aimed at improving, developing and establishing public hospitals passed second reading in the Senate on Jan. 28.

“We need to strengthen our health care system because we don’t know how many more pandemics will come. Let us not wait for our health care system to give up completely and endanger the lives of our countrymen,” he said.

In a previous speech, the lawmaker pointed out that improving and establishing hospitals run by the government should not be treated as a burden but an investment.

“Because in the end, if the LGU (local government unit) doesn’t do that, the national government will also take part in that problem,” Go said.

He proposed to convert the Cotabato Sanitarium in Sultan Kudarat town in Maguindanao as a general hospital to be known as the Cotabato Sanitarium and General Hospital.

Other health facilities that he wants to convert to hospitals are the Sulu Sanitarium in Jolo into a General Hospital to be known as the Sulu Sanitarium and General Hospital and the Western Visayas Sanitarium in Santa Barbara, Iloilo into a General Hospital to be known as the Western Visayas Sanitarium and General Hospital.

All measures provide for the corresponding increase in bed capacities of the hospitals.

Some measures, Go said, also aim to upgrade the Bicol Regional Training and Teaching Hospital in Legazpi City, Albay into a general and subspecialty hospital to be known as the Bicol Regional Hospital and Medical Center; and the Don Jose S. Monfort Medical Center Extension Hospital in Barotac Nuevo, Iloilo into a tertiary hospital to be known as the Don Jose S. Monfort Medical Center.

He also sponsored bills to increase the bed capacity of several hospitals, including Dr. Paulino J. Garcia Memorial Research and Medical Center in Cabanatuan City, Nueva Ecija from 400 to 1,000 beds; Ilocos Training and Regional Medical Center in San Fernando City, La Union from 300 to 800 beds; Northern Mindanao Medical Center in Cagayan de Oro City, Misamis Oriental from 600 to 1,200 beds; and Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center in Cebu City from 1,200 to 1,500 beds.

On the other hand, the new Department of Health hospitals to be established under Go’s sponsored measures include the Ilocos Sur Medical Center in Candon City, Samar Island Medical Center in Calbayog City, Southern Luzon Multispecialty Medical Center in Tayabas, Quezon province, Northwestern Cagayan General Hospital in Cagayan, Joni Villanueva General Hospital in Bulacan, and Northeastern Misamis General Hospital in Misamis Oriental.

In his sponsorship speech delivered on Jan. 25, the senator stressed the importance of upgrading existing hospitals and establishing new ones, especially in the countryside where they are most needed.