DOH – Ilocos Assistant Regional Director Rodolfo Antonio M. Albornoz emphasizes the importance of formulating a Health Facility Development Plan for the implementation of the Universal Health Care Province-Wide and City-Wide Health System during the 2-day workshop for Pangasinan health officers held in Bolinao, Pangasinan.
The Department of Health (DOH) – Ilocos Region led by the Regional Health Facility Development Unit (HFDU) recently conducted a 2-day ‘Workshop on the Strengthening of Public Health Networks and Crafting of Health Facility Development Plan for a Province-Wide and City-Wide Health Systems to Pangasinan health officers to ensure the integration and efficient delivery of both population-based and individual-based health services in the province during the first week of September in Bolinao, Pangasinan.
“We need to formulate and finalize Pangasinan’s health facility development plans, including Dagupan City, as they will serve as the city and province’s blueprint in implementing health infrastructures and medical investment that will ensure a strong primary care and integrated health system for every Filipino, consistent with Republic Act (RA) No. 11223, or the Universal Health Care Act of 2019,” Assistant Regional Director Rodolfo Antonio M. Albornoz stated in his message during the workshop.
“First, we need to establish a Health Care Provider Network (HCPN) in the province that shall be composed of primary, secondary and tertiary levels of care and where Primary Care Facilities (PCF) will serve as gatekeepers and navigators of health services within the network.”
For many years, our healthcare system has been fragmented but with the UHC in place, our inter-local health zones will become Province-Wide and City-Wide Health Systems (P/CW HS), which will ensure a more efficient and harmonized delivery of health services in the public sector and will lead to the progressive realization of the overall goal of “Healthy Pangasinan” kung saan ramdam ng bawat Pangasinense na ang kanilang buhay ay mahalaga, saan man sila magpunta,” Albornoz emphasized.
The basic foundation of HCPN is composed of the Primary Care Provider Network providing quality, efficient, coordinated and comprehensive primary care, with the hospitals catering to health services as mandated by their own level of licenses being 1st, 2nd, and 3rd.
The hospitals and PCFs through an established mechanism will link patients through patient navigation from the community to higher levels of care and vice-versa.
“This will ensure that every patient shall be served and no one will be left behind, especially the most vulnerable sector, our GIDAs, and our Indigenous People,” Regional Health Development Unit Head, Cheryl D. Buhong, who facilitated the workshop explained.
“The workshop intended to provide technical assistance to resolve issues and concerns on the HFDP based on available evidence and date in all rural health units, government and private hospitals in the province of Pangasinan,” she added.
The recently signed Memorandum Circular No. 26 from the Office of the President, entitled: Adopting the Philippine Health Facility Development Plan 2020-2040 (PHFDP), directs all national government agencies and instrumentalities, and encourages local government units to undertake efforts to implement an overall strategy for infrastructure and medical equipment investments.
This supports the end goal of ensuring a strong primary care and integrated health system for every Filipino, consistent with the UHC Act.
DOH – Ilocos Regional Health Development Unit Head, Cheryl D. Buhong discusses ways to resolve issues and concerns on the implementation of the health facility development plan in all rural health units, government and private hospitals in the province of Pangasinan.
Health officers from Pangasinan province and Dagupan City posed for posterity after the 2-day workshop on ‘Strengthening of Public Health Networks and Crafting of Health Facility Development Plan for a Province-Wide and City-Wide Health Systems’ held from August 31, 2023 to September 1, 2023 in Bolinao, Pangasinan.
