SENATE OFFICE, Manila, April 25, 2011-Senator Edgardo J. Angara who authored Senate Bill No. 2629, the Community Health Delivery and Health Team Placement Act which seeks to establish Rural Health Centers in every town and barangay has urged the government for the creation of more health centers in the countryside to ensure the delivery of health services where he believes that it would dramatically decrease the high infant mortality rate nationwide.
Angara said that at least four medical professionals Local Health Unit should be manned to improve access to basic health facilities, infant and mother mortality rates in the countryside may be reduced.
He said that that his bill which is known as “An Act Establishing a Responsive Local Health Unit in Each City and Municipality to ensure delivery of primary health services and to provide a mechanism to ensure the placement of required health personnel in these Local Health Units and other government operated health facilities has been referred to the Health and Demography after the First Reading.
He added that more than 2 million babies are stillborn each year throughout the world and about half could have been prevented with proper health care during the pregnancy according to Lancet, a global medical journal, adding that most of these stillbirths were caused by delivery complications, infections, and congenital abnormalities.
“Unfortunately, this is common in developing countries like the Philippines. Due to the dearth of health care facilities and qualified medical professionals in the province, expectant mothers skip regular checkups which might detect curable and preventable illnesses in the unborn baby,” Angara said. (Jason de Asis)
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