Barangay health centre’s quality care and its impact to the society.Medical emergencies or health problem is an unpredictable situation at any time of the day.
For that reason hospitals have emergency staff working 24/7. Barangay health centres and workers should also be open and serving 24/7, including dawn hours, to help mothers, children and senior citizens who suddenly acquire health problems but do not have enough money to go the hospital for consultation and medicine. Barangay health centres should regularly have medicine and medical devices.
Therefore medical devices should be working. When a child from an unfortunate family gets sick, or some other illness that needs urgent medical attention outside of business hours or on a Saturday or Sunday, the sick have to suffer the discomfort and pain right until the barangay health center is available on the next working day that starts at 8 a.m. because of lack of money going to a private clinic and doctor is not a choice. If a person is experiencing symptoms of dengue, chikungunya, pneumonia or infection, the patient’s health status may worsen by the time public health professionals entertain them. Worse comes to worst, the sick person succumbs or die. Health service is demanding and barangay health workers should always be available round-the-clock like ordinary hospital staffers to relieve, treat or save patients seeking their help at any time of the day.
But with a weekdays-only working schedule, they are not fully fulfilling their duty for unfortunate people. In Minalabac town in Camarines Sur, the municipal office’s health center that serves residents of nearby barangays has a birthing facility called Naybahay that entertains pregnant mothers 24 hours a day, as well as free delivery for a second-born if the mother is covered by PhilHealth. Aside from birthing, post- and pre-natal checkups at NayBahay and other local birthing facilities in Minalabac is free with the cost of service, including professional consultation and medicines, covered by PhilHealth. On the other hand, if the patient is not a PhilHealth member, they have to shoulder the P1,500 fee if the mother is served during business hours, or P2,500 if she is served during off-hours. The NayBahay, which was built by the use of donated funds from a pharmaceutical firm, has a two-bed delivery room and a two-bed ward.
It is well-equipped, has ample medical supplies for patients, and is professionally run by municipal midwives with assistance from nurses of the DOH. The local government of Minalabac funds the day-to-day operation and pays the salaries of the midwives and one ambulance driver. The DOH pays for the salaries of the nurses. Ideally, all barangay health centers should be like Naybahay so any poor villager’s medical or health issue is timely addressed and remedied for free.
