DOH trains community health teams on Kalusugang Pangkalahatan

By Oliver T. Baccay

Monday 13th of August 2012

TUGUEGARAO CITY, Aug 13 (PIA) -- The Department of Health (DOH) Region 2 has trained almost all organized community health teams (CHTs) in the mainland provinces of Cagayan Valley regarding the administration's health agenda, Kalusugang Pangkalahatan (KP).

Dr. Edward Albano, chief-local health division, said that only the municipality of Palanan in Isabela has not yet finished the CHT trainings, as it is the most hard-to-reach town lying in the east coast of the region. The trainers need to wait for a good weather condition to reach the area. But for the provinces of Cagayan, Nueva Vizcaya and Quirino, all CHTs were already oriented.

KP, or the universal health care, is a focused approach on health reform implementation ensuring that all Filipinos, especially the poor, receive the benefits of health reform. Albano said Batanes is not yet included in the priority list as it is listed as non-poor province.

“We are now covering the Palanan area and we are set to start likewise for the set five of the program in the whole region. We are confident that before the year ends, all CHTs in all sets will be trained to ensure that our poor sick individuals are assured of health services,” Albano said.

Albano further mentioned that the health department will develop a monitoring and evaluation tool to establish functionality in all CHTs as well as to organize monitoring team per province to ensure the smooth implementation of the program up to the barrios. (TCB/OTB-PIA 2)