In a bid to become a “Sentrong Sigla”, the Cotabato City Office on Health Services (OHS) relocated to its new home beginning Monday (March 2) in the refurbished building once used by the City Engineer’s Office (CEO) along Sta. Maria Street in Barangay Rosary Heights Mother.
A “Sentrong Sigla” accreditation by the Department of Health brings with it many benefits such as PHILHEALTH subsidy of P600,000 for medical services extended to patients.
This, plus the fact of the burgeoning population of the city, was what led Cotabato City Mayor Mus Sema to direct OHS, which used to be in the SP Building along Gen. SK Pendatun Avenue (Almonte), to occupy the 635 square meter-wide CEO building which was vacated more than a year ago when its previous occupants were transferred to the New City Hall. “Health needs of our people increase parallel with the continuous swelling of the city’s population, thus there should be a continuous boost up both in our capabilities and resources,” Sema said during the short inauguration program attended mostly by city councilors and department heads. The transfer of the office carries with it the necessity to activate the pilot District Health Centers at Tamontaka and Poblacion Mother Barangay within the current year.
Last year, the city government began clustering health centers into 7 groups of contiguous barangays, with each cluster to have one district health center and a doctor-on-duty. The minimum target is to equip each center with six beds and other basic health equipment specially birthing and delivery facilities.
On Sept 22, several important medical tools from the Act for Peace Programme were received by the OHS for the pilot clustered health centers.
The idea is to “bring closer to the residents our health services, thus reducing time and fare for patients who ordinarily have to go to the City Health Office in the downtown for consultation,” declared Acting City Health Officer Dr. Zul Qarneyn Abas.
Annually, the OHS has to attend to an average of 11,000 patients seeking various medical consultations and interventions. Its dental services alone were availed by 7629 walk-in-patients last year.
Abas further revealed that the long-term goal is to make the new office into a medical diagnostic center that can offer standard laboratory tests at very affordable fees.
The renovation of the building was funded with P200,000 out of last year’s community development fund.
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