Governor-elect Rep. Edgar Chatto has seriously evaluated the health and education conditions in the province as he readies to assume the 25th governorship of Bohol exactly 17 days from now.
The two vital concerns are priority parts of what he calls “HEAT” that will “heat up” his first 100 days as new supreme elective official of the province. HEAT means health, education, agriculture and tourism.
He made rundowns of the prevailing situations, problems and possible immediate remedial measures during his informal but useful small group discussions with the health and education sectors. He will meet separately with the agriculture and tourism sectors.
Effective health care delivery is one key area for urgent attention which the incoming governor wants to avoid being overwhelmed by other concerns that he similarly intends to act on.
Chatto intends to hold, if inevitable, a comprehensive health summit for broader participation and learned inputs hoped to scrap inept policies and set a clearer direction.
Provincial Health Office (PHO) head Dr. Reymoses Cabagnot confided in their brainstorming that there were years that the provincial government, which runs several devolved hospitals, did not even have capital outlays.
The province’s five-year health investment plan will be reviewed while Chatto intends to immediately meet with the provincial Local Health Board after he shall have assumed office.
The initial but “awakening” assessment pointed to the needs for the full tapping of the Philhealth universal coverage system, upgrading of hospitals, reactivation of the district health zones, effective individual and institutional referral system, and efficient procurement system.
It likewise seriously noted the lack of manpower, need to tap the services of private doctors and other medical practitioners, misconception about the charging system, need to institutionalize a performance audit of the province’s hospital system, and need to strengthen the primary health care to emphasize a wiser preventive rather than curative health care system.
The health meeting was also attended by Dr. Fruserma Uy of PHO, Jagna District Hospital chief Dr. Winifreda Cagulada, Dr. Jude Doblas who is the Bohol president of the Association of Municipal Health Officers of the Philippines (AMHOP) and Dr. Oliver Yu of the Ramiro Hospital.
OBSERVATIONS
The province-run hospitals and rural health units (RHUs) can get more returns if most of the Philhealth-enrolled patients avail of their services. Claims and refunds from Philhealth should not be unduly delayed.
Philhealth reimbursements will in turn fund the continuing operation of the hospitals and defray other expenses, including the purchase of new or additional medicines.
Chatto said the universal coverage of Philhealth is ideal as it insures the most number of beneficiaries, but how to attract them to go to the devolved hospitals and RHUs is another thing.
Unlike all the devolved hospitals, only less than 50% of the RHUs are Philhealth accredited. Also, only 35 RHUs have Philhealth outpatient benefit package.
The local government units (LGUs) ought to enroll with Philhealth their poor or lowly constituents but they cannot claim reimbursements because their RHUs are not accredited.
It was further learned that the province and certain LGUs have paid under a 50-50 scheme the annual premiums of their sponsored Philhealth enrolees. However, the LGUs would not remit to the province the latter’s P150 equal share from the yearly P300 capitation refund from Philhealth.
Cabagnot estimated at some 19,000 the indigents provincewide who have been enrolled with Philhealth under its universal coverage.
On the patient referral system, the five health districts or district health zones will be made dynamic as one way to decongest the Gov. Gallares Memorial Provincial Hospital (GCGMH), Bohol’s biggest and only government hospital located in Tagbilaran City, while acknowledging the use of the town hospitals.
The PHO chief said that about four years ago, patients from within the city already comprised nearly 40% of the admission to the GCGMH, which is by category a regional tertiary hospital of the Department of Health (DOH).
The district health zones have respective core hospitals in Talibon, Jagna, Loon, Catigbian and Carmen. They are flagship hospitals and main referral hospitals under the provincial government’s hospital system. Sadly, only the Carmen health district is “functional.”
The Chatto administration will explore sources of funds and other supports to upgrade the hospitals and encourage the patients, including the Philhealth beneficiaries, far outside the city to avail of their services.
Chatto will review the province’s counterparting programs to guide the budgeting for next year as Cabagnot admitted the budgetary handicap to improve the hospitals, their manpower and services.
“There were years when we did not even have capital outlays,” the provincial health officer revealed.
MANPOWER
According to Dr. Yu of Ramiro Hospital, private doctors and other medical professionals could go to the government district hospitals as visiting doctors but their professional fees from Philhealth should be given.
The people should be educated on the charging system by the visiting private doctors in government hospitals and the charging system of the government hospitals themselves.
The province can hire the private doctors as one-peso-a-year consultants. They can be on-call by the district hospitals and RHUs when their specializations are required by the patients, who can become their captive clients.
Yu also suggested for the government to subsidize surgical implant materials so that the private doctors visiting the government hospitals no longer collect payment.
According to Cabagnot, many hospitals also lack medical technologists because the plantilla lacks items for them. Further, Bohol has one city and 47 towns yet there are only 30 medical technologists.
Many of them are assigned to field programs, which will be affected if they are pulled out and detailed to the hospitals.
The Chatto administration intends to address the immediate concerns thru immediate doable policies while working for long-term measures.
EDUCATION
Chatto dreams of a province with better educational training programs for the Boholanos to be globally competitive.
He reiterated his plan to expand the CPG Scholarship Program and apply provincewide his successful congressional study subsidy scheme. The separate CHED-allowed congressional scholarship for children of barangay officials and SK officials will be revived and fully implemented under his Bohol watch.
Chatto will conduct a donors’ forum to pool outside resources for the CPG scholarship. He will tap the Boholanos abroad and even the big tour companies which have earned from Bohol’s beauty.
His informal small group meeting with the education sector identified concerns that include those needing proper coordination between the Department of Education (DepEd) Bohol Division Office, schools, provincial government and LGUs.
The provincial government, for example, built classrooms in schools which already had national allocations requested by the division office. The national funds usually came delayed and were already hard to realign. Thus, there are schools having “excess” classrooms while many are lacking.
DepEd-Bohol superintendent Dr. Lorna Rances also suggested that the allocation of elementary teacher items should be of division-wide application instead of having specific places of assignment.
The allocation of high school teacher items should likewise be flexible, although the required teaching majors should remain strictly observed.
The hiring of locally-paid teachers has no “quality control” for lack of LGU-Deped coordination. This has even sadly resulted in the employment of teachers who are not even board passers.
Rances said they have started correcting this system. The non-board passers can be hired and paid by the LGUs but to non-teaching jobs in schools.
This concerns most the DepEd, but Chatto agreed that the quality of instruction and learning should not be compromised.
The governor-elect also encouraged the education sector to make teacher applicants fully understand the DepEd policies on ranking and localization.
Meanwhile, Chatto was stunned by a revelation that there are also volunteer teachers not getting paid even with a single centavo. He declared that no government worker should be unpaid for his services rendered.
The meeting with the education sector was attended, too, by former DepEd-Bohol head Dr. Cerina Bolos, assistant superintendent Dr. Wilfreda Bongalos, TESDA Provincial Director Francisca Opog, Danny Bandala, president of the provincial federation of PTAs, and Mayette Naquila who is the president of the Bohol Association of Student Councils.
UNPAID OBLIGATION;
SKILLS TRAINING
The incoming governor will write to the new Senate president and House speaker and coordinate with the new Bohol congressmen for an allocation in the 2011 budget to pay TESDA-Bohol’s P13 million unpaid obligation.
Opog raised for the first time to the incoming governor this serious concern that could affect TESDA’s training scholarship.
The national government only gave coupons to free skills education trainees without accompanying fund.
Also, Opog suggested to the next governor for a close coordination between the Bohol Employment and Placement Office (BEPO) and TESDA. She said BEPO should update TESDA on the labor market to guide the latter on what technical and vocational courses it would prioritize.
Chatto will make BEPO a dynamic job generation tool. BEPO facilitates employment, including overseas jobs.
But Chatto believed that only until such time that Bohol self-generates employment can the cycle of poverty in the province reversed.
The province has an existing skills training program dubbed the Special Training Advocating Reliance on Sel-employment STARS). But the TESDA head feared that the STARS could fall short of the expectation for certain reasons. The next administration can do something about it.
The skills training is essential as Chatto learned that numerous students cannot attain college education. Rances disclosed the alarming rate of student dropouts every year.
Students finish high school at average unemployable ages of 16 and 17. Skills training can guide them and the dropouts to self-employment. The government can assist them in seeking capital or linking them to the financing institutions and private sector.
There is also a need to strengthen the alternative learning system (ALS), a literacy program for out-of-schools youths and adults partnered with livelihood skills training. It was hoped in the meeting to build and equip community learning centers for ALS.
SEF FOR LEARNING;
BOLD SPORTS PROGRAM
The education sector expressed strict preference for the Special Education Fund (SEF), which is one percent of the real property tax, to be used for academic learning.
Huge allocations from it are often used for sports activities.
Chatto and the education sector planned to tap the business sector and other solvent sources to sponsor year-round sports cups both in the elementary and secondary levels. These can become regular leagues of priority sports events in which the Boholanos can excel.
Ten percent (10%) of the SK fund will be devoted to sports programs as an approach to youth development.
The next provincial administration intends to allocate regular funds for the sub-congressional and district congressional meets. These are apart from the fund for the provincial meet.
Chatto will make it a policy of his governorship that no teachers and parents will contribute any amount for sports meets.(Ven rebo Arigo)
No comments:
Post a Comment