An official of the Governor Celestino Gallares Memorial Hospital (GCGMH) said that they are expecting to have a “Malasakit Center” built inside the health facility within the first half of the year.
A Malasakit Center is part of the Duterte administration’s health support initiative and is expected to be built in various government-run hospitals in the region.
For Bohol, the facility will be built at the GCGMH and at the Don Emilio Del Valle Memorial Hospital in Ubay.
According to GCGMH medical director Dr. Mutya Macuno, a Malasakit Center is now being built at the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center in Cebu and another will be built in Tagbilaran and Ubay next.
In 2017, a memorandum of agreement was signed among Office of the Presidential Assistant for the Visayas and various government agencies for the construction of Malasakit Centers in Cebu and Bohol as pilot regions for the program.
The same facility is also set to be built inside the Eversely Child’s Sanitarium and General Hospital, Saint Anthony Mother and Child Hospital, and Talisay District Hospital.
Through the Malasakit Center, indigent patients will have easier access to support from the Department of Health, Department of Social Welfare and Development and other government agencies for their medical expenses.
Titus Borromeo, the spokesperson of Presidential Assistant for the Visayas Michael Diño, said that the centers will be funded by private benefactors. (A. Doydora)