Door-to-door health teams go to serve 10M families nationwide

THE Department of Health on Tuesday said that the agency will deploy door-to-door health teams to visit the poorest of the poor areas nationwide.

Health Secretary Enrique Ona said that the health agency, with its government partner agencies such as the Department of Interior and Local Government, Department of Social Welfare and Development and Department of Education, through “Community Health Team Mobilization” campaign guarantee that every family in the community is periodically visited and attended by health providers.

Ona said that the project is part of the Kalusugan Pangkalahatan or Universal Health Care.

The health teams will do a nationwide door-to-door visit to reach all families, especially the poorest Filipino households, identified through the DSWD’s National Household Targeting System.

“The campaign aims to link these families to social service providers, to provide critical social services when needed and to deliver key health messages,” the health agency said.

“Government is allotting a budget of P1.25 billion for this campaign,” Ona added.

The health department said that at least 42,000 health teams will be deployed to visit some 10.8 million households.

It added that each team shall visit 15 to 80 households a day to cover the entire barangay in 17 to 25 days depending on the total households and distance of each household in the said barangay. The campaign is scheduled to run from October 2011 to January 2012.

The team shall also distribute complete treatment packages or medicines, provide immunizations for children and senior citizens and other health services as the need arises, like counseling for mental health problems and family planning needs, the health department said.

Each team is composed of a leader, either a midwife or nurse, and four members that include a barangay health worker or traditional birth attendant, a social welfare development office representative or parent leaders, a barangay nutrition and a barangay service population officer.

“The DOH is now on the next phase of its effort to achieve Kalusugan Pangkalahatan, and this campaign is just one of many programs directed to providing poor Filipino families access to quality health care,” the Health secretary said.

“The mobilization of CHTs is the DOH’s strategy to ensure that all populations and individuals vulnerable to illnesses are provided information and services to maintain their health and well-being and to prevent progression of illness. After all, preventing illness and promoting wellness is in fact cheaper than treating the sick,” stressed the health chief.

Moreover, the 12 priority areas to be covered include Metro Manila, Negros Occidental, Quezon, Cebu, Pangasinan, Iloilo, Cavite, Maguindanao, Zamboanga del Sur, Leyte, Davao del Sur and Pampanga.

Meanwhile, the health agency said that the DOH is taking the lead in this initiative and in particular will be in charge of the training and mobilization of health teams while the partner agencies will provide additional support in terms of logistics and information among other things in the implementation of the program. –JOVEE MARIE N. DELA CRUZ, Manila Times