Manila: President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. wants quality health services to be accessible to all Filipinos, particularly those living in geographically isolated and disadvantaged areas. For this reason, the Marcos administration ensures that the Department of Health (DOH) would be able to deliver healthcare services without any interruption.
According to Philippines News Agency, in a Bagong Pilipinas Ngayon interview, Health Secretary Teodoro Herbosa said the DOH has received a PHP267.8 billion budget for this year, the biggest in its history, under the current administration. Herbosa conveyed that President Marcos has legacy projects such as cancer and children’s centers with funds allocated to ensure their construction. Following the signing of the 2025 national budget in December last year, Marcos instructed Herbosa to guarantee the provision of health benefit packages to all members of the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth), despite the state insurer’s zero government subsidy.
Coming out of the pandemic, the DOH encountered challenges in nutrition, immunization, maternal mortality, tuberculosis, HIV, hepatitis, non-communicable diseases like diabetes and hypertension, mental health, cancer, and digitization of the health system. To combat these issues, Herbosa said the agency focused its efforts on health promotion, disease prevention, and acute and emergency care.
The DOH opened 42 Bagong Urgent Care and Ambulatory Services (BUCAS) Centers to bring urgent care and ambulatory services to the poorest families. Twenty of the centers are in Luzon, eight in Visayas, and 14 in Mindanao. These centers are operational from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m., with family and community medicine doctors assigned to provide free basic healthcare services.
Additional initiatives include 83 Bagong Pilipinas (New Philippines) mobile clinics equipped with digital X-ray, CT scan, ultrasound, hematology analyzer for blood tests, binocular microscope, ophthalmoscope for eye tests, lab-grade refrigerator, and telemedicine equipment. Herbosa also mentioned the expansion of several hospitals, including a multi-specialty center in Clark, Pampanga, with plans to replicate specialty hospitals focusing on lung, kidney, heart, and children’s healthcare across the nation.
