MANILA, Philippines – Malacañang recently launched state-of-the-art mobile primary care facilities that will bring medical services closer to communities, especially underserved areas.
A total of 83 medical buses will be deployed across the country — one for every province — to augment facilities capable of responding to the healthcare needs of Filipinos.
The mobile healthcare facilities will provide laboratory examinations, doctor consultations and medicine to patients all for free.
Each bus is equipped with modern diagnostic equipment, among them a mobile digital X-ray machine, an ultrasound machine, a hematology analyzer for blood tests, a binocular microscope, an ophthalmoscope for eye tests, a lab-grade refrigerator, and telemedicine equipment.
Of the total, seven buses were recently turned over to the seven provinces of Central Luzon. In ceremonies at the City of San Fernando in Pampanga, First Lady Liza Araneta-Marcos led the handover of the mobile healthcare facilities to provincial government officials of Aurora, Bataan, Bulacan, Nueva Ecija, Pampanga, Tarlac and Zambales.
The Department of Health also held a training and orientation of health officials from the seven provinces to teach them how to operate the mobile primary care facilities.
The medical buses are a critical addition to primary healthcare facilities in the Philippines, where the ratio of the population to hospital beds and doctors fall short of global standards. According to government data, 1,000 Filipinos share one hospital bed in the country, far from the global standard of 200 per hospital bed. There is also just one doctor for every 1,667 Filipinos, below the benchmark of 1,000 people per doctor.