WORLD-CLASS HOSPITAL CARE GOES TO THE BARRIOS

A nation that cannot take care of its own would be no better than a failed state.

- Presidential Broadcast Service-Bureau of Broadcast Services PBS-BBS)

This is the caveat that prompted President Ferdinand R. Marcos to prioritize health and social justice amidst his overarching goal of attaining progress and development for all Filipinos.

And the President is right in this regard because it would seem ironic that a country that creates one of the best health workers in the world is not able to take care of its own people.

As a corollary, a nation that creates the best nurses in the world should also have the best facilities that medicine can offer, especially specialty hospitals that are rare in far flung areas.

President Marcos saw the wisdom and necessity of bringing modern medicine to the barrios during the pandemic.

The recent COVID-19 proved to be an unprecedented challenge to the country where hundreds of thousands were stricken, gravely disrupting the country's economic growth.

The Philippines even experienced the 13th-highest economic loss worldwide with an estimated 10 percent GDP decline in 2020.

COVID-19 greatly impacted vulnerable communities in the Philippines due to community quarantines alongside transport and border restrictions which affected health service access and delivery.

Such had a more profound effect on patients requiring specialist care the most.

Swamped with critical-care patients at the height of the pandemic, hospitals and healthcare workers wobbled under crushing pressure.

As the biggest hospitals were concentrated in Metro Manila, afflicted Filipinos from the provinces braved quarantine measures to seek the best treatment which they believed they could only get in the nation's capital.

Two years after the outbreak of the pandemic, the country's healthcare system has yet to fully recover from the onslaught.

President Marcos came to office aware of the gargantuan challenge in rebuilding the economy and healthcare.