Bacolod City – Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri announced that an additional ₱ 2 billion has been added to the budget for the establishment of regional branches of specialty hospitals for heart, lung and kidney, in line with the implementation of the Universal Health Care (UHC) act.
That is why we are now prioritizing the passage of Negros Island Region, in order for the new region to have a specialty hospital for the heart, lung and kidney, and to avail of the funds which already included in the 2023 budget, Zubiri, who authored Senate bill number 80, an Act establishing regional branches of special hospitals such as Philippine Heart Center, National Kidney and Transplant Institute and Lung Center, said.
Senator Juan Victor Ejercito, the principal author of UHC, said he is thankful for Senate President Zubiri for adding P2 billion to the budget for specialty hospitals in every region of the country, increasing the budget to P4 billion.
Hopefully, with the passage of NIR, we can put up a regional specialty hospital in our place (Negros), Zubiri further said.
“We are very excited for next year, for the approval of NIR and for the regional specialty hospitals,” he stressed.
Zubiri underscored the strengthening of medical services in provinces, noting that people have to go to Manila for treatment in specialty hospitals.
He also said that the P4B budget for specialty hospitals in regions all over the country is part of the UHC, which provides free medication to all Filipinos.
Instead of going to lung, heart and kidney centers in Metro Manila, patients may now avail of such treatment in regional specialty hospitals, Zubiri added.
As to safety nets that UHC will not be used a political tool by politicians, Ejercito explained that its rationale states that people will no longer troop to the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office, PAGCOR or any other government agencies to seek financial assistance, since UHC has funds set aside for it.
That is why we created UHC, in order to remove political patronage, he added. (Gilbert Bayoran via The Visayan Daily Star (TVDS), photo courtesy of TVDS)
