THE annual medical mission marking Baguio City's charter anniversary will be conducted Saturday, August 31, at the City Hall grounds and lobby, not at the Baguio Convention Center, contrary to earlier announcements.
The shift in venue to the city's main edifice will make the free medical and dental services more accessible to Baguio's poorest of the poor who are the main target beneficiaries of this humanitarian dimension to the city’s observance of its 104th founding anniversary.
Mission chair and city health officer, Dr. Florence Reyes, said City Social Welfare and Development officer Betty Fangasan and her staff, in coordination with barangay officials, have identified the main beneficiaries -- families covered by the 4Ps (Pantawid Pampamilyang Pilipino Program) of the Department of Social Welfare and Development.
Reyes has again assigned Dr. John Tinoyan as coordinator of the mission that will offer curative and preventive medical services to indigents and an opportunity for various sectors of the community to pool resources under the theme "Steadfast Service to the City."
Based on last year's actual figure, preparations are targeted for some 5,000 residents. The previous mission drew 3,000 who availed of medical check-up and medicines, 1,000 for tooth extraction and dental care, and 1,000 for optical service.
Tinoyan said the preventive medicine component will be handled primarily by the staff of the Baguio Health Department while the curative service will be jointly done with the various sectors and sponsors of the whole-day health project.
As in last year, the major co-sponsors this year are the various local chapters of Lions International, the Baguio-Benguet Public Information Civic Action Group and the Red Cross.
As it also did last year, Victory Liner will provide at least P500,000 worth of medicines.
Support by Mayor Mauricio Domogan, the mission will also accent on the city's pioneering work in promoting breast-feeding through the late Dr. Natividad Clavano.
Dr. Clavano, head of the Under 6 Clinic of the Baguio General Hospital and Medical Center, advocated for immediate rooming in for nursing mothers, thus making the institution the first mother-and-baby friendly hospital world-wide.