Mahintana Foundation, Inc., through its HEALTH Plus project sponsors the Association of Municipal/City Health Officers of the Philippines (AMCHOP) – South Cotabato Chapter Quarterly Meeting on October 15, 2019 at Viajera Dine, Koronadal City, South Cotabato. The meeting was attended by 5 Municipal Health Officers (MHOs) from Sto. Nino, T’boli, Tantangan, Tampakan and Lake Sebu, 3 representatives from Integrated Provincial Health Office (IPHO) headed by Dr. Rogelio Aturdido, Jr., Provincial Health Officer (PHO) and 2 representatives from Mahintana Foundation, Inc. Dra. Jocelyn Bayquin, MHO of Lake Sebu, AMCHOP President and presider of the meeting, started with giving of rationale which is a follow-through activity of the Strategic Planning workshop held at Venue 88 and clear out any misunderstanding regarding the Universal Health Care (UHC) implementation. She updated the group that the Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) of the law has already been signed thus, will become the basis of the province’s implementation as one of the advanced sites. Dr. Aturdido also updated the group that the Zuellig Family Foundation (ZFF) with their Bridging Leadership program will gather the Provincial Governor and all Municipal/City Mayors to orient them about UHC and deepen their understanding on the Special Health Fund on October 22, 2019. Mr. John Salcedo, IPHO Admin Officer, also provided the group updates about the Local Investment Plan for Health (LIPH) as an output of the strategic planning workshop. Ms. Marifort R. Rodel, IPHO point person on UHC, presented the UHC implementation plan of the province for the next 6 years per integration area: technical, managerial and financial. She also informed the participants that they should start with their survey since the deadline of PhilHealth on the submission of the results will be on or before December 31, 2019. Dra. Evelyn Diosana, MHO of Sto Nino, raised the concern on the budget for printing of survey forms. Ms. Hora suggested that instead of having manual profiling, for the RHUs to utilize the paperless Open Data Kit (ODK) in the profiling. She committed for the foundation to sponsor the ODK training for the enumerators. The group agreed on the suggestion.
At the end of the meeting, the participants agreed on the following: IPHO together with Reach Health as TA provider on UHC, Mahintana Foundation, Inc. and Dra. Bayquin, to enhance the implementation plan on October 18, 2019 for presentation to the Governor and Mayors during the October 22 meeting; Mahintana to schedule ODK training for the enumerators not later than the last week of October, 2019, depending on the availability of the Resource Speaker, and confer the final schedule for the training to Dra. Bayquin; MHOs to include in their LIPH the purchase of tablet and android phones for ODK-based survey and profiling; Ms. Rodel of IPHO to discuss with DOH 12 for the availability of tablets for temporary use by the enumerators for profiling to hit PhilHealth’s deadline.
