Angara bats for establishment of 1 hospital for every SUC offering medical degree

Senator Sonny Angara is pushing for the establishment of hospitals within state universities and colleges (SUC) as a way to help fortify the country’s health system.

He noted that when the country experienced a surge in Covid-19 cases, the “entire nation was confronted with the reality that there were not enough hospital beds to cater to the patients and that more doctors and other medical personnel are needed to treat them.”

“We need to strengthen our healthcare system and two of the initial steps that we can take is to produce more doctors and nurses and to increase the number of hospitals that will serve our people,” Angara said.

He has filed Senate Bill 1850 or the Healthcare Facility Augmentation Act, which seeks to establish one hospital in every SUC that offers a medical degree.

Each of these hospitals will have a bed capacity of not less than 50 beds within the grounds of the SUCs.

“Apart from increasing our hospital bed capacity, the construction of these SUC hospitals will also serve as the training ground for the medical students of the SUCs just like what UP-PGH has long been doing. Hindi na sila kailangan pa lumayo sa sarili nilang bakod para makakuha ng experience na kailangan para maging doktor at nars,” Angara said.

Under the bill, the graduates of the medical degree programs in the concerned SUCs who availed of a government scholarship program shall be required to render their return service in the hospital of the SUC from which they graduate from.

A total of nine SUCs are offering medical degrees: University of Northern Philippines, Mariano Marcos State University, University of the Philippines- Leyte, Cagayan State University, Mindanao State University- General Santos, Bicol University, West Visayas State University, Mindanao State University- Marawi, and University of the Philippines- Manila.

On the other hand, there are 45 SUCs that offer BS nursing courses.

Angara said he would like to see more SUCs offering medical courses so that students, who want to pursue a career in medicine, would have a greater opportunity to do so wherever they are situated.

The nine SUCs with medical degrees are situated in eight regions, posing a major hindrance to the students, not situated in those regions, who may want to enroll in SUCs and pursue a medical degree.

“The reality that six out of 10 Filipinos die without seeing a medical professional is very alarming. After seeing the data, it explains why our healthcare system was overwhelmed when we were hit by the Covid-19 pandemic,” Angara said.

Source: Latest Politics News Today (Politics.com.ph)