The Department of Health has adopted a new strategy to health agenda of President Rodrigo Duterte as it braces to ensure the mandatory check-up of 20 million Filipinos by December 25.
The gameplan, A.C.H.I.E.V.E, stand for the following: Advance primary care and quality; Cover all Filipinos against financial health risk; Harness power of strategic human resource; Invest in digital health and data for decision-making; Enforce standard, accountability and transparency; Value clients and patients; and Elicit multi-sector, multi-stakeholder support for health.
“At the end of the day, when universal health insurance leads to pro-poor utilization, non-reliance on out-of-pocket payment, and zero health related impoverishment; when promotion, prevention, and comprehensive services in functional service delivery networks lead to better and equitable health outcomes and overwhelming public satisfaction; and when efficient and effective utilization of meager resources enable attainment of our Sustainable Development Goals, then we can safely say that we have ACHIEVED Kalusugan Para sa Lahat through the Duterte Health Agenda!” said Health Secretary Paulyn Jean Rosell-Ubial.
Ubial noted that a simple, basic check-up can lead to the early detection of several illnesses.
“For example cataract, malnourishment, underweight, underheight—physically, you can see that, and you can intervene already. That’s basic check up, basically, me, I’ve been a public health worker, I can diagnose leprosy just by looking at the patient. I don’t need a high-tech gadget or a microscope to diagnose that,” said Ubial.
Not all Filipinos today have access to professional health workers, Ubial said.
During the previous administration, she said about 30 percent Filipinos do not have regular access to a health facility.
The DOH unveiled last September 15 the Duterte Health Agenda at the National Health Summit in Pasay City underscoring the theme “Strengthening Partnerships to Achieve All for Health Towards Health for All.”
The Duterte Health Agenda offers three promises to the Filipino people and charts the roadmap on how these goals will turn into reality.
Ubial said fhe first goal is for all Filipinos attaining their best health outcomes, living longer a healthy age with few illnesses and preventing premature deaths from the scourges of stressful daily living and emerging public health threats like drug addiction and Zika.
She said the second goal is for all Filipinos, especially the poorest of the poor, to gain freedom from high cost of medical care, prevent financial ruin and to be liberated from profit-oriented health services.
The third and final goal, Ubial said, is for all Filipinos to have a satisfactory experience when they access health services, where they feel respected and valued, and finally become in charge of their own health care.
“DOH believes that our goals for the health system cannot be achieved without the support of our local partners and stakeholders including the people themselves who should be empowered to chart their own health,” she said.
She said the government’s approach with the health priorities or pronouncements in the 10-Point Economic Agenda of the Duterte Administration. These include: strengthening in the implementation of the Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health Law; and investing in human capital development, including health and education systems.
European Union Ambassador Franz Jessen said they have a long-standing partner in the health sector in the Philippines. This forms part of their continuing commitment to support the health sector reform agenda, specifically, the Duterte Health Agenda All for Health towards Health for All.
The European Union and the Philippines signed the “Philippines Health Sector Reform Contract” (PHSRC) last July 2004. This was the fourth time EU funded program to support the Philippine Health Sector Reform Agenda.
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