DOH allocates Php158M for hospitals in Pangasinan

• Source: http://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/986824
• Thursday, May 11, 2017

By Leonardo V. Micua (PNA)

LINGAYEN, Pangasinan, May 11 -- The province of Pangasinan will soon receive a Php 158-million financial assistance from the Department of Health (DOH) to improve the infrastructures, equipment and facilities of 14 hospitals operated by the province.

This was shared by Governor Amado Espino III in his State of the Province Address (SOPA) during a special session of the provincial board at the Capitol Plaza here at 8:00 a.m, today, Thursday.

Espino said of the amount, Php 67.8 million will be used to fund the infrastructure needs of these hospitals and another Php 91 million for the purchase of hospital equipment and facilities.

The infrastructures include the construction of additional wards, laboratory and supply rooms, sewerage, waste water treatment facilities and others.

Espino said that in 2016, the DOH allocated P141 million for infrastructure alone to these hospitals.

On the other hand, the hospital equipment for these hospitals include x-ray machines, orthopaedic instruments, radiographic devices, electrocautery machine, anesthesia machine with ventilator, dental panoramic device, operating room table, maternal delivery table and others.

The amount for these equipment will be drawn from DOH's Health Facilities Enhancement Program.

Last year, the DOH already allocated to the province two mobile dental clinics which the Provincial Health Office (PHO) is now using in delivering free dental services to patients in various towns and cities.

At the same time, Espino revealed that the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) donated three brand new Foton ambulances in October last year for the Umingan Community Hospital, Mapandan Community Hospital and Eastern Pangasinan District Hospital.

In his SOPA, Espino said that the organizational and diagnostic capability improvements and physical and structural upgrading works of the 14 hospitals run by the province will continue.

He said because of the improvements done in these hospitals, they had become what he called "the hospitals of choice of most Pangasinenses" as their services and capabilities can now compare with those of big private hospitals.

In 2016, outpatients served by these hospital totaled 405,115 for the past 10 months starting July 2016, or 48,407 patients per month, translated to 1,125 patients per day.

The in-patients totaled 486,066 or 48.407 patients per month, or 1,615 patients per day.

Last year, the combined bed capacity rate of these hospitals reached 235 percent, although the DOH-approved bed capacity is only 655 beds.

Thus, Espino said the provincial government through the provincial board asked the DOH to increase these hospitals' authorized bed capacity to 1,500 beds.