News Release

Women’s Health and Safe Motherhood Phase 2 Accomplishments

By: Irma A. Guhit

Sorsogon City, (PIA) – A team assessment on the World Bank (WB) health-funded programs in the province of Sorsogon implemented under the Women’s Health and Safe Motherhood Project Phase  2 (WHSMP2) covering a 4-year period from 2006-2010 was conducted by the World Bank Supervision Mission Team here last week.

The World Bank Supervision Mission Team comprised of Dr. Eduardo Banza, WB Health Team Leader, Mr. Tomas Sta. Maria and Mr. Stephen, both WB funding specialists and Mr. Buddy Destura, WB project assistant. They were assisted by WHSMP2 regional coordinator Ms. Divine Dawal of the Department of Health Region 5.

Dr. Edgar Garcia, Sorsogon Provincial Health Officer, presented to the WB Supervision Mission Team the official document of the 2^nd Phase of the four-year program implemented from 2006-2010 through the WHSMP2. The accomplishment focused on health facility upgrade primarily hospital buildings, purchase of needed hospital equipments, capacity building and enhancement of health personnel, summary of fund utilization report and the summary of Payments of Performance-Based Grant. The end goal of the WB Health Funded Program is the attainment of a reliable-sustainable support system for public health.

Under the WHSMP2, the province was able to renovate the Donsol District Hospital and Pilar Rural Health Unit thru the LOGOFIND and Provincial Local Government initiatives.

The construction of Casiguran, Irosin, Gubat and Bacon Rural Health Units were local initiatives derived from Performance-Based Grant and enrolment to Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PHIC) or Philhealth.

Thru the AECID Fund, the construction of the Rural Health Units of Castilla, Juban, Barcelona, Bulusan and Sta. Magdalena were accomplished while one Barangay Health Unit in Pilar is still on the process of construction.

The seven Basic Emergency Obstetric Newborn Care (BEmONC) hospitals were provided with necessary health equipments.

Part of the highlights of the 4-year WHSMP2 program implementation was the organization of Service Delivery Teams. Eight hundred seventy one (871) Women’s Health Teams were organized and trained from five hundred forty one (541) barangays. A total of one thousand and fifty (1,050) Barangay Recruitment Teams were organized and oriented which included some members coming from   the Women Health Team.

BEmONC teams were also organized comprising of twenty four (24) properly oriented and trained health workers teams with six (6) more teams of health providers to be trained at the Bicol Regional Teaching and Training Hospital (BRTTH).

Two Social Hygiene teams were also organized and made functional. One (1) Provincial Itinerant Team was reactivated with members comprising of representatives from the Inter-Local Health Zones and one Provincial Maternal Review Team was also organized.

Under the WHSMP2 Environmental Safeguard Implementation program, two (2) Environmental Management Units were established in compliance of Environmental Certificate requirements, and for Waste Management Focal Persons in BEmONCs twenty four (24) waste management focal persons were designated.

For Capacity Enhancement for Personnel, twenty four (24) BEmONC teams were trained, a Maternal Death Review Protocol (MDRP) was also formed with two (2) Maternal Death Review (MDR) and Neo-natal Death Review (NDR) conducted for 2010. Under Data Management, seventeen (17) nurses were trained last 2009 on data encoding with nineteen (19) more nurses for training. Seven hundred forty one (741) Women‘s Health Team Functions (WHTF) were oriented on the amended provincial ordinance and its related functions.

Gender Sensitivity and Health Training were also provided to thirty nine (39) health personnel last Nov. 18-20, 2009 and eighty nine (89) health workers underwent capability enhancement training on Team Capacity Building last Nov. 16-17, 2009.

Under the Performance-Based Grant for facility-Based Childbirth, for the first tranche of funding received out of Php3,374,119.00 per Fund Utilization Resource (FUR) Php7577,000.00 and 2^nd tranche Php746,199.01 both were liquidated. The third tranche in the amount of Php6,091,000 was deposited last August 3, 2010. The amount of Php2,717,280.00 was already disbursed and the balance as of December 2010 for FUR was Php3,374,119.00.

Under the Philhealth Universal Insurance coverage, PHIC’s total reimbursement from 2006-2009 amounted to Php16,151,917.51.

Ensuring a reliable sustainable support system, the accomplishments undertaken by the WHSMP2 showed nine (9) out of the fifteen (15) Rural Health Units were MCP-Accredited by PHIC; for MCP Accreditation of BEmONC, hospitals were also accredited by PHIC and two (2) Comprehensive Emergency Obstetric Newborn Care (CEmonc) hospitals were also accredited by PHIC.

Under the Safe Blood Supply Network Support System, twelve (12) LGUs through an Executive Order created their Municipal Blood Councils (MBC) and fifteen (15) LGUs conducted blood collection. Blood donations with 299 units of blood were collected in 2009 while 2,677 units of blood collected in 2010. (PIA Sorsogon)