THE Department of Health (DOH) is looking at three options to turn "ghost" health centers into fully functioning ones.
In an interview after visiting a health center in Marikina City, Health Secretary Teodoro Herbosa reiterated that it is his priority to make inactive health centers into fully operational facilities.
"My objective as health secretary is to make all these 297 functional. If I have 297 functional super health centers for primary care, there won't be overcrowding in the hospitals," said Herbosa.
He said one option is to have them remain under the local government units with its health personnel to be supported by the DOH.
Herbosa said another option is to transfer its administration to the DOH and be converted into a Bagong Urgent Care and Ambulatory Service (Bucas) facility.
He said the DOH can turn them into public-private partnership (PPP) projects with the aid of the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation.
As for new health centers, Herbosa said they will be next in line in terms of DOH priority programs.
"We didn’t want to construct new ones because this might happen again if I put up a new one. So we’re looking at fixing everything first so they can be of service," said Herbosa.
One of them is the health center in Barangay Concepcion Dos in Marikina City, which Herbosa personally saw as being an incomplete health center despite being pencilled to be a four-storey facility.
The health chief said P21 million was allocated for Phase 1 of the project with the foundation and structural works supposed to be completed from December 2023 until April 2024.
"That's P21 million that is idle. Did it serve a single patient? No. That's your tax money," said Herbosa.
List to ICI
Herbosa said the DOH is set to submit the list of 297 "ghost" health centers to the Independent Commission for Infrastructure (ICI) on Friday.
"We would like them to check out the 297 health centers, whose constructions were delayed or incomplete while others completed construction but are not operational," said Herbosa.
"To me, this is a waste of money. To me, these health care funds could have been used to pay for the hospitalization," he added.
So far, he said the list contain areas that are mostly in Luzon.
"Most are in Luzon because Luzon has the largest land area," Herbosa said.
The health chief said the numbers may even increase in the coming weeks as the DOH's investigation nationwide is still ongoing.
"I'm having all the regional directors check the others," said Herbosa. (Anton Banal/SunStar Philippines)