Bohol Hospitals and Health Care Efforts

Health is among government priorities in its bid to make the country among progressive nations in the southeast. Spearheading this concern is the Department of Health (DOH), and among top DOH programs being pushed today are health care plans implemented in hospitals both government and private around the country.

Bohol hospitals are not to be left out in this endeavor. A number of skills and facilities upgrading to improve Bohol health care services have been done to advance medical efficiency in Bohol hospitals. In the center of all these is the Gov. Celestino Gallares Memorial Hospital (GCGMH), the regional venue for teaching Bohol health care and training in the same as designated by DOH-CHD 7.

Located on M. Parras Street in Tagbilaran, Bohol Province, GCGMH was built and established primarily for the health care of Tagbilaran folks in particular and the people of Bohol in general. This is authorized and enforced by R.A. 3114 consequently making GCGMH foremost among Bohol hospitals as a regional infirmary serving primarily Region 7.

In 1992, as part of boosting Bohol health care development, 25 beds were added to the 200 beds already available in the Celestino Gallares Memorial Hospital. This was in view of the increasing number of patients being given health care services, as other hospitals in the region refer special cases to this infirmary. It also aims to have Bohol rabies-free in the offing as the government invested Php 16 million for this purpose.

Another is Don Emilio Del Valle Memorial Hospital (DEDVMH) in Ubay, Bohol. Beginning in 1999, as an out-patient Bohol health care extension facility of GCGMH, this hospital was a popular “annex” of GCGMH. Later, in 2003, to supplement Bohol health care services, it was licensed as a full-pledged 27-bed hospital equipped with primary health care facilities. The idea was to cater to the health care needs of eastern Bohol and somehow relieve GCGMH of considerable loads of medical and Bohol health care cases.

Since then, DEDVMH has been a referral infirmary for general, competent, and effective hospital health care and medical services. This realizes the DOH drive to improve Bohol health care, dubbed “Sentrong Sigla,” exerting efforts at attaining surgical proficiency on the provincial level. This, aside from being a model infirmary to other Bohol hospitals.

The idea is preserve a district health system that revolves around Bohol health care and medical services by Bohol hospitals with GCGMH at the forefront.

To augment this, the Bohol local government initiated a free hospitalization scheme to boost people’s health care through the use of “blue cards” when availing of services from hospitals.

Of course, private hospitals are also into this. Private health care providers are in partnership with private hospitals like Borja Family Clinic, Lim Community Hospital, and the Tagbilaran Community Hospital, to name a few. Folks with means to avail of a higher value of Bohol health care packages can always make use of these health care services.

Progress must clearly reach down to the grassroots level, first and foremost, through health care and medical services. This is precisely the idea behind the Bohol health care efforts in the province’s hospitals today.

More hospitals in Bohol: Englewood Hospital - Saint Jude General Hospital - MMG Bohol Cooperative Hospital - Ramiro Hospital - Tagbilaran Puericulture Center & Maternity House