MANILA — President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Wednesday directed the Department of Health to focus on the provision of primary healthcare services down to the local level as he noted the need to institute reforms in the country’s healthcare system during a meeting with health officials in Malacañang.

“Yes, indeed, we talked about the reforms that the President wants implemented in our healthcare system. It focused really on… emphasis on primary care.

We talked about how the idea of we’re spending a lot of money on improving a lot of our specialty hospitals but a lot of the diseases that Filipinos die from are actually preventable if we have good primary care services at the local level,” Health Secretary Ted Herbosa said in a Palace briefing.

Herbosa said the DOH presented their plan to focus on health promotion and disease prevention, acute care, and women’s health during the meeting with the President.

Part of their effort, he says, is the development of the Bagong Urgent Care and Ambulatory Services (BUCAS) Centers, which are mid-level diagnostic and therapeutic centers that will give primary care to Filipinos at the community level.

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“[W]e now have actually ten operational all over the Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao — and we expect to open another eight in the next few months. We are targeting as much as 28 for this administration but I think we will exceed that because now, I have 79 proposals from different regional offices that are more than two hours away from a regional hospital,” the Health Chief said.

Herbosa said the DOH will be procuring mobile clinics that will be deployed to the remote areas.

“And to complete the whole gamut from specialty center, regional hospital, BUCAS mobile clinic is the Purok Kalusugan Program — this is a program wherein we will revitalize primary healthcare in the community and going down below the level of the barangay at the purok level,” he said. 

GOV'T NOT EYEING CAP ON HEALTHCARE WORKER DEPLOYMENT

Meanwhile, Herbosa said the government is not looking to impose a cap on the deployment of Filipino nurses abroad even as it noted the need to address a shortage of healthcare workers in the country.

The Philippines needs at least 190,000 healthcare workers to fill the gaps of the health care system, Herbosa said in a Palace briefing.

The official said that he would rather the Philippines produce more nurses rather than limit them from leaving the country.

“If you have a good product like a nice car or a nice TV that is being exported and is in demand, would you stop its production? No! I will just increase more and that’s where the direction we’re going,” he said.

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The DOH on Wednesday presented to President Marcos Jr its National Human Resources Master Plan 2020-2040, which includes a national workforce support system to address the gap in human resources in the country’s healthcare sector.

“May mga good news in the meeting. We had—the CHEd described that under this administration, there are now 20 state universities and colleges that are graduating medical students, so malaking improvement iyon from a previous of eight in the past administration. And then, we are also increasing our output of skills through TESDA,” he said.

Herbosa  said the DOH is working with other agencies to provide better remuneration and benefits to government nurses, such as the provision of financial subsidies that will help them get health insurance, housing projects, and even scholarships for those wanting to pursue higher education.

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