• GILBERT P. BAYORAN
Negros Occidental will soon have 31 super health centers in various local government units across the province.
Senator Christopher Lawrence “Bong” Go announced the development during his visit to Bacolod City on Sunday (March 23).
Go, who inspected the constructed super health centers in the cities of Himamaylan, Bacolod and Victorias and attended the 23rd Kisi-Kisi Festival in Ilog town during the weekend, said that Negros Occidental is among the provinces in the country with the highest number of super health centers up for construction.
“A super health center is a medium-type polyclinic that has services like dental, laboratory, X-ray, birthing facility, and other medical services. It will help decongest hospitals since residents can already avail of primary care in this center,” Go said in his speech.
A super health facility costs about P10 million, with the Department of Health as the implementing agency.
Go said that there are already more than 600 super health centers around the country, 307 of which were constructed in 2022 and 322 were built in 2023.
He said the super health centers will benefit mostly the residents in rural areas who have less access to primary health care, especially now with the implementation of the Universal Health Care Law.
The super health centers will have services from an outpatient clinic and consultation, pharmacy and dispensary, primary clinical laboratory, clinical microscopy, microbiology/parasitology, radiology, birthing and lying-in, tuberculosis consultation with direct sputum smear processing, and microscopy capability.
Himamaylan City Mayor Rogelio Raymund Tongson credited Go as among those who helped Himamaylan City, which now has an improving economy.
Bacolod City Mayor Alfredo Abelardo Benitez accompanied Go in his visit to the near completed super health center in Barangay Vista Alegre, before going to Victorias City for a similar inspection.
Go, who is the chairman of the Senate committees on health and sports, said that the Corazon Locsin Montelibano Memorial Regional Hospital (CLMMRH) in Bacolod City is among the care centers for 17 specialties that will be established under a five-year plan.
He said that Negros Occidental residents will no longer have to go to Metro Manila for cancer, cardiovascular, lung, renal, brain and spine care, trauma, orthopedic, burn, physical rehabilitation care, among others, as a care center will soon be established at the CLMMRH.
All these facilities are aimed at bringing closer the medical services to the people, which is a priority program of the administration of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., Go added. | GB
