DOH allots P75M to upgrade Laoag hospital

LAOAG CITY – The Department of Health has set aside PHP75 million for the upgrading and expansion of the Governor Roque B. Ablan Sr. Memorial Hospital here to improve its delivery of healthcare services.

To facilitate the transfer of funds to the Ilocos Norte government, members of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan (SP or provincial board) passed a resolution on Monday authorizing Governor Matthew Joseph Manotoc to enter into a memorandum of agreement with the Department of Health Center for Health and Development in Region 1, represented by Dr. Paula Paz Sydiongco, for the implementation of various projects to provide basic and adequate health services for the public.

Funded under Health Facilities Enhancement Program (HFEP) of the 2022 General Appropriations Act, provincial board member Medeldorf Gaoat said the grant is "a big step to boost the healthcare program in Ilocos Norte.”

In sponsoring the measure, Gaoat said the HFEP serves as a national government’s major strategy to provide assistance to government-owned healthcare facilities for the improvement of infrastructure, equipment upgrades, medical transportation such as mobile dental vans and ambulances, and acquisition of land for health facility expansion.

Under the Marcos administration, the Ilocos Norte government continues to improve its provincial and district hospitals located in various parts of the province to accommodate more patients.

Many patients currently would go to the state-run Mariano Marcos Memorial Hospital and Medical Center in Batac City, that overwhelms the premiere government hospital in this northern part of Luzon.

But once the provincial and district hospitals will be improved and expanded, the Batac hospital will no longer need to convert nearby schools for the setting up of temporary field hospitals to treat their patients, such as what happened during the surge of the coronavirus disease 2019. (PNA)