Finally, a doctor in each Province city

The Philippines will no longer "doctorless" municipalities have by the end of the year, said Health Secretary Enrique Ona yesterday.

Ona said 32 remaining "doctorless" and "very bad" municipalities in Abra, Ilocos Sur, Cagayan Island, Palawan, Tawi-Tawi and Basilan, would have their own eponymous physician in January by the Department of health (DOH) doctors the Barrios (DTTB) program.

Ona told "the good news is that by the end of this year, all of these so-called doctorless municipalities will be fulfilled," reporters.

Health Secretary Juan Flavier DTTB the program began than in 1993, when it was discovered that there had no municipal cities that doctor 10 years 271 or more, resulting in high mortality rates in these areas.

However, Ona said that the DOH was still trying to determine how to help these remaining cities so they could ever afford to hire their own municipal doctors.

"We hope that in the not so distant future we can will that essentially all implementers of our local authorities become their own program. There will no longer be every doctor to the Barrios Programme [directed by Manila], "he added.

"The programme focuses on equitable health care services to all areas of the country by deploying competent grant, committed, community-oriented and dedicated doctors to serve inaccessible areas," Ona said.

He noted that some of the DTTB doctors up to 50,000 persons can serve, or more than double the doctor population/ratio of 1: 20,000 by the World Health Organisation.

The DTTB programme promotes new doctors to serve at least two years in distant fifth-or sixth-class municipalities that cannot afford to hire their own doctor.

"Since 1993, 553 doctors have served in 390 municipalities anywhere in the Philippines. Our doctors are currently serving in 68 municipalities in 38 provinces and 16 regions in the whole country, "said Ona.

The doctors also get training of the Development Academy of the Philippines so they also could get a degree in Master in Public Management, large in the systems for health care and development.

"Units of local government are the ones who are really responsible for this need but fifth and sixth-grade municipalities are really very bad and they claim that they cannot afford to pay [for their own arts]. So, the national Government helps them, "said Ona.

He said a new batch of 114 DTTB doctors have just finished their preparations for deployment and 92 of them already sent to another position need for doctors.

"This is important because in our program of Pangkalahatan Kalusugan [Universal Healthcare], primary care is very important. Meaning, these municipalities have access to doctors, "said Ona.

"Once all the poor Filipinos under the PhilHeath fall, these doctors will also earn."They will have financial sustainability, "he added.

Ona said that the DOH is also performing a study if you want to know whether there are municipalities that were "graduated" from the program or were able to their own physician in the last two decades.