• CHRYSEE G. SAMILLANO
The Bacolod Sangguniang Panlungsod approved yesterday a resolution requesting the City Health Office to allocate additional funds for the City Health Pharmacy and extend the same to the various barangay health centers, to ensure the purchase and free distribution of commonly used and maintenance medicines for the city’s priority sectors.
The priority sectors include the unemployed, senior citizens, persons with disability (PWD), pregnant women, children, fisherfolks, and ordinary laborers.
Authored by Councilor Caesar Distrito, the resolution said the Bacolod City Health Office operates a City Health Pharmacy that provides free medicines to indigent patients, but current funding levels and supply volumes are often insufficient to meet the increasing demand for maintenance and commonly used drugs.
It is imperative to extend free supply of essential and maintenance medicines to the various Barangay Health Centers to bring these life-saving medicines closer to the people and ensure that these are free of charge, and strictly not for sale, it said.
The intended beneficiaries, those who are unemployed individuals, senior citizens, persons with disability (PWD), pregnant women, children, fisherfolks, and ordinary laborers, are among the most economically and physically at-risk sectors of society and must be prioritized for free access to these medicines, the resolution added.*
