BY CHRYSEE G. SAMILLANO
Bacolod Rep. Greg Gasataya recently introduced House Bill No. 2628, or An Act Creating the Bacolod-Negros Heart and Kidney Center.
The bill seeks to address the deficiency of medical facilities in Negros Occidental, with only two government-owned dialysis centers and a lone tertiary government hospital catering to thousands of patients with cardiovascular and kidney diseases.
Gasataya said the bill hopes to make quality medical care and services more accessible by establishing a center for heart and kidney diseases in Bacolod City.
He said cardiovascular and kidney diseases remain the top causes of death in the country today with about 276 Filipinos dying from heart attacks every day and 28,215 regularly undergoing dialysis due to kidney problems.
He pointed out that deficiency in government medical facilities is an additional burden on patients, especially the poor, through added expenses such as travel fare, lodging, and miscellaneous expenditures.
While there has been significant improvement in the quality of medical services that the state provides, issues in terms of accessibility due to financial and geographical constraints still remain, Gasataya said.
Patients suffering from cardiovascular and kidney diseases from all over the country are often faced with no other choice but to go to the Philippine Heart Center and the National Kidney and Transplant Institute in Metro Manila to avail of specialized medical assistance from the government, he said.*
