The Teresita Lopez Jalandoni Provincial Hospital (TLJPH) in Negros Occidental launched on Friday the operations of its family planning training center (FPTC).
The Silay City-based healthcare facility is the first provincial hospital in the Philippines to host an FPTC, carried out the program in partnership with the Department of Health, United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and Research Triangle Institute (RTI) International.
Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson said that through its establishment, the province will be able to develop and capacitate both new and existing primary care providers in line with the implementation of the Universal Health Care (UHC) Act.
“What we are launching today is the first LGU (local government unit)-owned FPTC in the country in TLJPH,” Lacson said during the ceremonial launch held at the Capitol Social Hall.
He was joined by Dr. Girlie Pinongan, provincial health officer; and Dr. Mary Ann Maestral, chief of hospital of TLJPH; Dr. Marc Franco Leong, training team head; and Dr. Laurentiu Stan, chief of party for USAID’s ReachHealth project in the Philippines.
Stan said that in the past year, the project has put efforts towards supporting the UHC implementation and along with it, the strengthening of family planning and adolescent reproductive health programs in Negros Occidental.
Specifically under family planning, the USAID supported the establishment of the training center at the TLJPH through plan development, orientations, project management and collaborative discussions.
Also, they provided support for the capacity-building of health providers from all 31 LGUs as trainers for the community health workers’ taskshifting course.
“We hope to continue to provide our support across the planned activities this upcoming year,” Stan said, particularly in the functionalization of the FPTC by assisting in the conduct of training for health services programs across the province and related activities.
The establishment of the FPTC, with its provincial training network, is a major strategy adopted by the province to sustainably address continuing needs for family planning training through the building of local training capacities.
The network consists of 15 preceptor facilities or field training areas, 18 trainers and 18 preceptors for training in family-planning competency-based training (FBCBT) Level 1 and long-acting family planning methods.
Training courses offered are for FBCBT-1, progestin-only subdermal implant insertion, removal and replacement, postpartum and interval intrauterine device (IUD) insertion and removal, and no scalpel vasectomy.*PNA
