THE DEPARTMENT of Health (DoH) on Tuesday said it plans on improving the delivery of tuberculosis (TB) medicine to local hospitals after President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. ordered the agency to prevent and lessen cases of the pulmonary disease.
“We do not lack the medicine for tuberculosis,” Health Secretary Teodoro J. Herbosa told a Palace briefing after a Cabinet meeting.
“Sometimes, they’re just in the warehouse and not delivered to the clinic and I think it can be solved simply with some logistics experts making sure the drugs are delivered.”
The Health secretary reiterated his agency’s plan to shorten the treatment plan for tuberculosis to four months from six months by the third quarter of the year based on a recommendation by the World Health Organization (WHO).
“WHO has recommended for us to adopt the four-month treatment for regimen — which is two months of a certain list of drugs, and another two months of another set of drugs,” he said in another briefing on Monday.
The DoH will also use new technologies such as artificial intelligence to detect the disease quicker, he said.
CLARK HOSPITALMr. Herbosa also announced that the DoH is set to launch a multi-specialty treatment center in Clark, Pampanga on July 17.
The medical facility will be built with government funds and donations from the private sector.
He said the facility will start out as a 100-bed general hospital and will eventually be expanded as a heart-specialty center.
The government plans to continue building more regional hospitals this year and to train more trauma surgeons for local treatment centers, he said as he cited the contributions and assistance extended by the private sector.
“So, we’re harnessing the private sector that’s been very… I‘d like to commend the private sector for helping me out in the goals for implementing the health outcomes,” he said.
“So, the government alone cannot do it, the private sector has a big role in improving our health services and the specialty services as well.” — John Victor D. Ordoñez
