Lingayen – About 40 health leaders of the provincial government will soon finish a training course on health leadership offered by the Zuellig Family Foundation (ZFF) and the Department of Health (DOH), making Pangasinan as the first local government unit (LGU) in Northern and Central Luzon to finish said program.
The enrolment of the provincial government to the Provincial Leadership and Governance Program (PLGP) of ZFF – DOH forms part of the continuing efforts of the provincial administration led by Governor Amado T. Espino, Jr. to further scale up the health sector in the province through enhancing the capability of health leaders to become more responsive in public health delivery and hospital services.
PLGP enrolees from the province include: key officials and program managers of the Provincial Health Office (PHO), chiefs of hospitals and representatives from offices of the provincial government who are responsibe to plan, manage human resource and to implement sound fiscal administration. The PLGP enrolees which also include representatives from the PhilHealth are expected to graduate by April or May, this year.
In an executive session, Vice Governor Jose Ferdinand Z. Calimlim, Jr. met with ZTT president Ernesto Garilao and DOH representatives led by regional director Myrna Cabotaje at the Urduja House, here, last March 22 where Provincial Health Officer Anna Maria Teresa De Guzman presented the activities undertaken by the PLGP enrolees to fulfil the requirements of said program.
The PGLP, according to Dr. De Guzman, was designed for one and a half year (1 1/2) enrolment to be completed, but the provincial government may be able to finish it in 12 months or as soon as final requirements will be accomplished.
De Guzman added that the series of discussion and practicum which include coaching and monitoring in modules 1 and 2 of the PLGP empower health leaders to become ‘bridging leaders’ to look into the welfare of the community, especially the poor.
Coaching and mentoring to the provincial government hospitals were done by the ZFF and DOH representatives on the progress of implementation of different interventions.
The hospital scorecard which has six building blocks – leadership and governance, information, service delivery, human resources, medicines and technology and financing was also introduced to measure the compliance of a hospital in certain indicators under each component.
Meanwhile, ZFF President Ernesto Garilao, lauded the provincial government for its health care delivery system, but pointed out “the need to revitalize further health care delivery in hospitals through change of mindset of health service providers.”
“If you fix Pangasinan, you fix the whole regional performance in terms of health care promotion,” Garilao said as he noted that Pangasinan constitutes half of the region’s population which implies that there are more people needing health care attention.
Under the Espino administration, the health sector received tremendous support in terms of budget as evidenced by an increase of 26 percent from 275 million in 2007 to 712 million in 2014, surpassing the prescribed budget of DOH.
It is also under the Espino leadership that ISO (International Organization for Standardization) certifications were awarded to the province – the Pangasinan Provincial Hospital (May 2014); and the PHO, which is the first and only health office of a provincial LGU in the entire country that became ISO-certified (January 2014).