Newly-appointed Department of Health (DOH) Secretary Teddy Herbosa said he plans to digitalize the country’s health department.
Herbosa said this is to make the DOH “very efficient” in delivering healthcare services to the people, especially those in rural areas.
He noted that digitizing the agency would help address issues of corruption linked to the department.
Earlier, the Commission on Audit (COA) flagged the DOH over P30 billion in unobligated and undisbursed COVID-19 funds.
“I want to also digitize the financing, the disbursement, the spending and procurement of these billions of pesos of people’s tax money. I want them all to go healthcare,” he said.
DOH Usec. Eric Tayag, appointed as the DOH chief information officer, said they will “make sure that we digitize healthcare so it becomes accessible in the most remote areas of the public.”
Tayag said once the issues on DOH’s finances and healthcare workers’ exodus are addressed, he hopes President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. will give the agency a bigger budget for next year.
For 2023, the Senate approved the proposed more than P320-billion budget for the DOH, its attached agencies, and specialty hospitals across the nation.
