WITH a budget of P1.4 billion, the Provincial Health Office (PHO) hopes to improve its medical services next year.

In a press conference, Dr. Rene Catan, the provincial health officer, said the biggest bulk of the amount is for personnel services, followed by public health that will focus on services the PHO has not been involved in over the last three years.

“We want to align our services with that of the Department of Health (DOH). So that’s the public health side. We have programs that DOH don’t have like giving services to the elderly,” Catan said.

He said that most public health services cater to mothers and children but none are for the elderly. So, the PHO will focus on treating diseases that afflict them like arthritis, hypertension, diabetes, hearing impairment, and cataracts, among others.

Catan said they’ve also set aside a big budget to develop four provincial hospitals in Carcar City (P230 million), Danao City (P200 million), Bogo City (P280 million) and Balamban (P90 million).

“They will develop them into a medical centers capable of doing sophisticated tertiary level care, especially in obstetrics emergencies and trauma due to accidents,” he said.

If provincial hospitals are upgraded to medical centers, people in these areas won’t have to go to the city.

“The access in health care is very important. We have several ambulances to ferry patients to Cebu City, which will be stopped once provincial hospitals will be upgraded,” Catan said.

He said that the budget for Bogo and Carcar is ready, but they have yet to come up with funding for Danao and Balamban.

“We are also buying equipment like CT scan and sophisticated lab and imaging systems to level up and compete with other hospitals. That’s what we expect for the year 2018,” Catan said.