• GILBERT P. BAYORAN
Senator Christopher Lawrence “Bong” Go announced yesterday that Negros Occidental will have 31 super health centers, with some already near completion.
Go, who inspected the super health centers constructed in the cities of Himamaylan, Bacolod, and Victorias, and attended the 23rd Kisi Kisi Festival in Ilog, all in Negros Occidental, during the weekend, reported that in the country, the province is among those with the most super health centers up for construction.
“A super health center is a medium-type of 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,” the Senator said in his speech.
The super health facilities cost about P10 million each, with the Department of Health as the implementing agency.
Go said there are already more than 600 super health centers around the country, 307 of which were constructed in 2022, and 322 last year.
He said the 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 capabilities for consultation, pharmacy and dispensary, primary clinical laboratory, clinical microscopy, microbiology/parasitology, radiology, birthing and lying-in, and TB consultation with direct sputum smear processing.
Himamaylan City Mayor Rogelio Raymund Tongson also credited Go as among those who had helped Himamaylan City, which is now “an awakened dragon,” because of its improving economy.
Bacolod City Mayor Alfredo Abelardo Benitez also accompanied Go in his visit to the nearly finished super health center in Brgy. Vista Alegre in Bacolod City, before going to Victorias City, for a similar inspection.
Go, the chairman of the Senate committees on Health and Sports, said that Corazon Locsin Montelibano Memorial Regional Hospital in Bacolod City is where care centers for 17 specialties will be established under a five-year plan.
All these facilities are aimed at bringing closer medical services to the people, which is a priority program of the administration of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., he added.*
