Medical personnel at the Cagayan Valley Medical Center in Tuguegarao City temporarily take care of the patients at the hospital's conference room on August 24, 2022, in the aftermath of tropical storm Florita after the hospital's general admission area was affected by the rain. Jonathan Cellona, ABS-CBN News
MANILA — Newly appointed Health Secretary Jose Brittanio "Brix" Pujalte on Wednesday laid out his priorities for accelerating the implementation of the country's Universal Health Care (UHC) law, saying the Department of Health (DOH) will focus on reforms that can deliver tangible results within the next two years.
Pujalte faced the media for the first time since President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. appointed him on July 13, following the resignation of former Health Secretary Dr. Teodoro Herbosa. Joining him were members of the newly formed Council of Experts, a group of former health secretaries tasked with helping the department address longstanding challenges in the health system.
The new health chief said the DOH is reviewing policies and programs to ensure they can be implemented more effectively and produce immediate benefits for patients.
Among his immediate priorities are expanding the Zero Billing Balance (ZBB) program, strengthening primary health care registration, improving monitoring of healthcare quality, addressing fraud involving PhilHealth case rates, and ensuring better coordination with the Health Facilities Enhancement Program (HFEP).
"We want to continue expanding ZBB, revisit primary health care registration, address fraud on implementation of PhilHealth case rates, monitoring of service quality, complementation with HFEP programs, among others," Pujalte said.
Pujalte also said he plans to visit provinces across the country to consult with local government units (LGUs) on how the national government can better support local health systems. He added that rehabilitating and making more Super Health Centers fully operational will also be a key focus of his administration.
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FORMER HEALTH CHIEFS TAPPED TO HELP SPEED UP REFORMS
Adopting what he described as a "patient first" approach, Pujalte acknowledged that the department faces enormous challenges, prompting him to convene a council composed of former Health Secretaries Esperanza Cabral, Manuel Dayrit, Jaime Galvez Tan, Janette Garin, and Carmencita Noriega-Reodica.
"Ang trabaho namin ay bigyan ng mga suggestions si Secretary Brix para mapabilis at maramdaman ng mga tao ang serbisyo mula sa DOH at mula rin sa ibang sectors ng gobyerno at private sector," Cabral said.
(Our task is to give Secretary Brix suggestions to speed up services so the people will experience the services of the DOH and other agencies, as well as the private sector._
Garin, who now serves as Iloilo representative, said the council is intended to function as the secretary's "extra hands," allowing him to focus on key decisions while drawing from the group's decades of experience in health governance.
"Instead of the secretary devoting his time on that, pwedeng kami ang unang gumawa ng staff work,," Garin said.
(We can do the preliminary staff work.)
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While improving healthcare facilities and expanding services are among the DOH's priorities, members of the council stressed that Universal Health Care cannot succeed without enough healthcare workers.
Cabral pointed to the country's persistent shortage of doctors, especially in underserved communities, as one of the biggest barriers to improving access to healthcare.
Dayrit said that although government programs such as Doctors to the Barrios (DTTB) and the deployment of nurses and midwives have helped bring medical professionals to remote areas, keeping them there remains a longstanding problem.
"That's what we have to do, strengthen their retention strategies because many of these people are willing to work in those areas even for a few years. You have to put budget into the retention," he said.
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Beyond deploying more doctors, nurses, and midwives, Dayrit said the government must invest in incentives, career development, and better working conditions to encourage health workers to remain in underserved communities.
For Pujalte and his newly assembled council, addressing systemic gaps will be critical to fulfilling the promise of the Universal Health Care law.
While infrastructure upgrades and policy reforms remain on the agenda, health officials acknowledged that meaningful improvements in patient care will ultimately depend on whether the country can build and maintain a healthcare workforce capable of delivering services for Filipinos.
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