The Antique Provincial Board wants to make services of the Malasakit Center more accessible, especially by indigents in the northern part of the province, and has requested for its establishment at Culasi District Hospital.

Vice Governor Edgar Denosta’s resolution requesting for another Malasakit Center, addressed to Senator Lawrence Christopher Go and the Department of Health (DOH), was approved by the provincial board during their regular session on Monday.

Go conceptualized the Malasakit Center, a one-stop shop facility within the premises of all DOH-run hospital where indigent and financially incapacitated patients can access assistance from the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation, Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office and Department of Social Welfare and Development.

Republic Act 11436 or the Malasakit Center Act was signed by former president Rodrigo Duterte on Dec.2, 2019.

Other public hospitals of local government units, state universities and colleges, Department of National Defense, Department of the Interior and Local Government, including the Philippine National Police, and the Department of Justice, may also apply for a Malasakit Center.

“Through the establishment of a Malasakit Center in the town of Culasi, the government can deliver basic services to our province mates in the northern municipalities in the most efficient, responsive, and sustainable manner,” Denosta said in an interview on Tuesday.

It can serve patients from northern municipalities Libertad, Pandan, Tibiao, Barbaza, Laua-an, Caluya, and the host town when realized.

The existing center was installed at Angel Salazar Memorial General Hospital (ASMGH) in San Jose de Buenavista in 2020.

A patient from Libertad, the northernmost town, has to travel for at least 143 kilometers, spending almost PHP500 for public transport, just to access services in San Jose de Buenavista.

“With the Malasakit Center at the ASMGH, patients or their families no longer have to go to the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation or the Department of Social Welfare and Development to avail of assistance for they have personnel assigned already at the one-stop shop,” said Integrated Provincial Health Officer I Dr. Leoncio Abiera Jr. in a separate interview. (PNA)