Free Med. for Poor Abound in P’sinan Prov. Hospitals

 By Mortz C. Ortigoza

LINGAYEN, Pangasinan – A political officer of Governor Ramon V. Guico, III encourages the indigents and financially incapable individuals to patronize the free treatment and medicines given by the 14 provincial hospitals in Pangasinan.

Former San Nicolas Mayor Rebecca Saldivar said that medicines like those used in tooth extraction and anti-rabbish vaccines abound in those hospitals.

Zaldivar cited too the two units of electrocardiogram (ECG) machines with analyzers, one unit of ventilator, one set of laryngoscopes, and one unit of automatic external defibrillator amounting to P1,752,829 were turned over early this year by the Department of Health (DoH) to the provincial government.

She pointed out the hundreds of millions of pesos of funds given this year by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) through the Medical Assistance for Indigent Patients (MAIP) and Financially Incapacitated Patients (FIP) programs for the provincial hospitals.

DOH Ilocos Regional Director Paula Paz Sydiongco told Governor Guico early this year that the government should give its health facilities quality medical equipment to ensure a strong and consistent workflow.

“We don’t want delays to happen during essential procedures because it can have serious consequences. A machine that breaks down or works inaccurately can cause a life-and-death situation.”
 
She added that the quality and safety of health services delivered are fundamental to improve the population’s health thus the government was determined to improve the public health systems and sustain this progress in order to cope with the constant demand and to realize the vision of better health through Universal Health Care.

The MAIP and FIP are national government programs aim to provide medical and financial assistance to patients seeking consultation, rehabilitation, examination, or confinement in government hospitals.

“MAIP program fund shall cover essential and life-saving medicines, services, and other medical products as prescribed by a licensed physician or health professional. Indigent patients are the primary recipients of the program. Indigent patients are those who have no visible means of income or whose income is insufficient for family subsistence as identified by the DSWD based on specific criteria,” read the Department of Health (DOH) Administrative Order (AO) No. 2020-0060 which was amended last March 30.

Dr. Dalvie Casilang, Hospital Management Services Office Administrator, told reporters that the beneficiaries are indigent and financially incapacitated, who have been assessed not based on their socio-economic status but on the status of the medications they will be needing, including that for cancer and auto-immune diseases.

Under the AO the patient who is not classified as indigent but demonstrates the inability to pay or spend for necessary expenditures for one’s medical treatment such as but not limited to patients with catastrophic illness or any illness, which is life or limb-threatening and requires prolonged hospitalization, extremely expensive or other special but essential care that would deplete one’s financial resources, as assessed and certified by the medical social worker.

In the middle of this year the DSWD downloaded to the provincial government PHP287-million for MAIP and FIP programs.

Dr. Casilang lauded Pangasinan 5^th District Congressman Ramon Guico, Jr. – the father of the Governor – for diverting his MAIP funds to the province and House Speaker Martin Romualdez who interceded for it.