‘Specialty health centers to help medical evacuees’

DEPUTY Speaker and Batangas

Rep. Ralph G. Recto said the recently passed House bill regionalizing heart, lung, kidney, and 13 other specialty centers will help “medical evacuees” who flee to big cities for treatment and medical scholars whose studies are funded by the government to plug the lack of doctors.

Recto said the National Network of Medical Specialty Centers Bill, which the House passed on Monday, seeks to spare the sick and their families from the “financial pain “of going to Manila, Cebu, and Davao where government specialty centers are.

It will also create more “treat-trainteach” hospitals that would complement the Doktor Para Sa Bayan program, which will fund 3,600 scholars in 32 schools in 15 regions this year, Recto said.

The bill calls for the establishment by the DOH of National Specialty Centers, Advanced Comprehensive Specialty Centers, and Basic Comprehensive Specialty Center in selected DOH hospitals. Maricel Cruz