Malasakit Centers soon in 4 Cebu province hospitals

Three more hospitals in Metro Cebu will launch Malasakit Centers this month. | CDN Digital file photo

CEBU CITY, Philippines — Malasakit Centers may soon be established in the four provincial hospitals in the cities of Bogo, Carcar, and Danao and the town of Balamban.

The Cebu Provincial Information Office (PIO), in a news release, said Senator Christopher Lawrence Go has expressed his support to the request of Governor Gwendolyn Garcia to establish the center in the Capitol-run hospitals.

The centers will host the help desks of government agencies that extend financial assistance to indigent patients such as the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth), Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) and the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).

Establishing a Malasakit Center in a hospital also means the downloading of funds from the Office of the President to compliment with the assistance given by the government agencies and offset the hospital bill of an in indigent patient.

3 Malasakit Centers launched

Last Friday, March 6, 2020, Go lead the launching of three Malasakit Centers in Cebu which included the Talisay District Hospital, one of the 12 Capitol-run district hospitals; the Department of Health-run St. Anthony Mother and Child Hospital in Cebu City; and the city government-run Lapu-Lapu City Hospital.

A Malasakit Center was also established in Eversley Childs Sanitarium and General Hospital last February 25.

Aside from the establishment of the Malasakit Centers, Cebu province is also one of the pilot areas for the implementation of the Universal Health Care (UHC) law.

By capacitating the lower level health care facilities such as the rural health units, district and provincial hospitals, Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said during the UHC launch in Cebu that higher level hospitals may decongest the higher level hospitals like the DOH-run Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center, a regional level 3 hospital.

Read: Universal Health Care Law implementation starts in Cebu; DOH reminds not everything is ‘free’

Read: Free hospitalization for poor Cebuanos before year-end

The Carcar Provincial Hospital serves as the catchment medical facility for patients from southern Cebu; Balamban Provincial Hospital caters for those in the midwest; Danao Provincial Hospital for those from the northern section of the province; and Bogo Provincial Hospital for those coming from extreme northern Cebu.

In 2018, the Cebu Provincial Board also amended the Revenue Code of the province to implement free hospitalization for indigent patients./dbs