The Bicol Regional Training and Teaching Hospital (BRTTH) has thanked Albay Rep. Joey Salceda for facilitating funds to support its Medical Assistance for Indigent Patients (MAIP) program which has served – among others – some 10,888 COVID-19 patients since the pandemic broke out last year.
In a recent letter to Salceda, Dr. Eric Raymond Raborar, BRTTH Medical Chief, said the MAIP has allowed the hospital to accomplish much despite the challenges presented by the pandemic.
“We would like to express our heartfelt gratitude and appreciation to you for all the assistance you have been extending to BRTTH and our patients during this national health emergency,” Raborar said.
“With your unconditional support to BRTTH and to the MAIP, we are able to provide medical assistance to both COVID and non-COVID patients, especially those who cannot afford the costs of healthcare services offered by private institutions,” he added.
Salceda, in turn, thanked the BRTTH “for recognizing our 2D (2nd District) COVID Response Team and our 2D commitment of MAIP funds for COVID treatment,”
For its pandemic response, the BRTTH – with 250 to a peak of 300 bed capacity – has received over P135 million in 2021.
It has spent a total of P431,832.232, with P187,235,956.86 in PhilHealth claims and P140,272,464.63 in receivables.
The BRTTH was converted into a “purely COVID hospital facility” on September 15, 2021, accepting only critical, severe and moderate COVID cases, and highly critical and complex non-COVID medical cases.
To expand its response to the pandemic, BRTTH has likewise activated its Triangle Response Team with its three district hospitals – Ziga Memorial District Hospital, the Legazpi City Hospital, and the Josefina Belmonte-Duran Albay Provincial Hospital in the first, second and third districts of the province, respectively.
Under its pandemic response, all patients have been extended free services and medicines, laboratory tests (MRI, CT scan, X-RAY), as well as free 24/7 access to BRTTH BioMed technicians for medical equipment calibration and internal access to its operations center.
The BRTTH 2021 accomplishment report shows the institution has helped downgrade the pandemic in Albay by 65 percent.
Salceda has continuously helped the BRTTH to better address and serve the health and medical concerns of the Bicol region, filing various proposals in Congress to upgrade the medical facility and expand its capacity.
House Bill 8856, which he filed in 2019, aims to upgrade the over 100-year-old BRTTH, which now stands as the Philippine General Hospital of Southern Luzon, so it can ably cater to more patients from Albay, Sorsogon, and the island provinces of Masbate and Catanduanes, many of whom are disadvantaged by the travel distance and the rising costs of medical facilities in Metro Manila.