THE Provincial Government of Pampanga signed Monday, November 12, a memorandum of agreement (MOA) with the Department of Social and Welfare Development (DSWD) for the establishment of the “Lingap at Gabay para sa may Sakit” center at the Diosdado Macapagal Memorial Hospital.

The "Lingap at Gabay para may Sakit" Center, which has a P5-million fund from the national government, will assist patients in need of prescription medicines via the issuance of guarantee letters.

Priority beneficiaries would be families or individuals who are indigent, vulnerable and disadvantaged; informal sector and poor based on the DSWD Listahanan; government employees and contract of service workers working in the government; police personnel/officers who were killed or wounded; and those who are in crisis situations based on assessment of social workers.

Governor Lilia “Nanay” Pineda told Gemma Gabuya, DSWD regional director, that this will lessen the worries of a patient's family, particularly for medicines.

It can be recalled that it was during Governor Pineda's leadership that the consignment contract was signed, where a patient and his family are prohibited from buying medicines outside public hospitals supervised by the provincial government. (PR)