DIPOLOG CITY, April 18 (PIA) - - The provincial government of Zamboanga del Norte has already spent P86 million as medical assistance to poor patients for the last three years.
In his State of the Province Address (SOPA) last Monday, Governor Rolando E. Yebes reported that the medical assistance extended by the provincial government to some 33,749 impoverished patients in the province for the last three years had totaled P86 million.
Yebes said “a total of 11,925 indigent patients benefited from hospital services in the sum of P26.2 million in 2009.” Another 10,338 poor patients were assisted in 2010 with the provincial government shelling out P34.7 million, and in 2011 around 11,486 destitute patients were given assistance in the amount of P25.1 million.
“The cost is overwhelming, but that is people’s money invested back to them in terms of improved hospital and health care services right here at home,” explained the governor.
Yebes also said that under his leadership the provincial government was able to build a new hospital named ZaNorte Medical Center, which Health Secretary Enrique T. Ona “claimed to be the best provincial hospital he has ever visited throughout the country.”
According to Yebes, the ZaNorte Medical Center can now cater to patients needing special care and treatment with the presence of diplomate doctors such as prematurely born neonate, pregnant mothers with medical problems, patients suffering from gastro intestinal bleeding, kidney failure, brain tumor and others. (FPG/PIA-Zamboanga del Norte)
