Clustering of government hospitals

Clustering of government hospitals
Mindanao Newsbits
Manila Bulletin
October 2, 2010

Clustering of gov't hospitals
DAVAO CITY – Clustering of state-run health institutions per region is expected to propel delivery of services especially those underserved in rural areas, the Department of Health (DoH) said Friday.

Romulo Busuego, DoH assistant secretary for hospital operations, said they are eyeing this to streamline the resources of hospitals so that they would be able to respond efficiently to the community.

“Our hospitals need to develop its infrastructure, equipment, technology and financing resources,” Busuego said this as he spoke to reporters in a press conference held at the Southern Philippines Medical Center Friday morning.

Busuego said he was told by DoH Secretary Enrique T. Ona to come up with a strategy to cluster hospitals and turn them into a network system where they could merge by referring patients one to another depending on the kind of health service they need.

“This way, bigger public hospitals would no longer attend to patients who are suffering illness that could be attended by health workers in centers located in the countryside,” he said. (Mick Basa)


Men Outnumber Women in Zambo
PAGADIAN CITY, Zamboanga del Sur – Of the 25 provinces in Mindanao, only Zamboanga del Sur boasts of more male than female population, the Region 9 office of the National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB 9) announced here.

NCSB 9 chief Mewchun Pamaran said that of Zamboanga del Sur’s latest total population of close to 915,000 gathered by the National Census and Statistics Office (NCSO), at least 51.1 percent belongs to the stronger sex while 49.9 percent comprises the weaker sex.

The data represent a sex ratio of 105 males for every 100 females in the Muslim-Christian province, Pamaran said, adding that the superiority in number of the former over the latter is most apparent in the age bracket between zero to 59 years old.

Pamaran also noted that almost 55 percent of the province’s population is of voting age starting at 18 years with the male voters outnumbering their female counterparts – 51.2 percent against 48.2 percent.

The NCSB official added that the area’s population age 10 and above, 46.9 percent is married while the remaining ones were “never married.” (Tony Pe Rimando)


TB Cure Center Up in Koronadal
GENERAL SANTOS CITY (PNA) – The Department of Health (DoH) is working for the establishment of a regional treatment center for Tuberculosis (TB) in Koronadal City to help effectively address the growing cases of the disease in Region 12.

Heidi Florentin, TB program coordinator of South Cotabato, said the DoH and partner agencies like the National Lung Center and the Philippine Business for Social Progress have signed a Memorandum of Agreement with local government officials for the construction of a TB Multi-Drug Resistant or MDR Center for the region.

Region 12 covers the provinces of South Cotabato, Sarangani, Sultan Kudarat, North Cotabato, and the cities of General Santos, Koronadal, Tacurong, Kidapawan, and Cotabato. Based on the agreement, she said the facility would be set up beside the City Health Office compound along Alunan Avenue in Koronadal City.

As counterpart for the project, Florentin said the city government of Koronadal will provide five medical personnel to manage the treatment center, which would be absorbed by the local government after five years.