ILIGAN CITY (PIA) – Iliganons are now assured of affordable, safe, and quality essential medicines with the opening of the city’s first FOURmula One Plus Botika ng Bayan (F1+BnB).
The BnB was officially opened to the public after a memorandum of agreement was signed on Thursday, Nov. 26, between the city government of Iligan represented by Mayor Celso Regencia and the Department of Health (DOH) represented by Dr. Adriano Suba-an, the regional director of DOH-10.
City Health Officer Dr. Cherlina Cañaveral said the opening of the Iligan’s BnB is in line with the thrust of President Rodrigo Duterte to give affordable, quality, and accessible healthcare service to all Filipinos.
This, she said, includes the giving of accessible and quality essential medicines to indigents and those who belong to the marginalized sector of the community.
“The purpose of this is to give quality essential drugs to all the Filipino people without shelling out money from their pockets. This is also a realization of the President’s vision that no Filipinos shall go home without getting the essential medicine that they need,” Cañaveral said during the launching of Iligan’s BnB.
By presenting a doctor’s prescription to the BnB, indigent patients are guaranteed to receive prescribed medicines without any amount incurred from their own pockets.
Mayor Regencia expressed gratitude to the DOH-10 for its continuous support to the city government and for helping them establish the BnB.
He also emphasized the importance of quality health services to Iliganons saying that getting sick is a big burden to families whose earnings are barely enough to cover their basic needs.
“Manghinaot ko nga unta kini makatabang og dako kaayo sa atong mga tawo nga mga pobre, kadtong mga kabus nga moanhi dinhi nga maka avail sa libre nga tambal,” he further said.
[I hope this could be a big help to our poor people who come here to avail of free medicines.]
Regencia also gave an assurance that the city government of Iligan is supportive of the provision of quality healthcare services adding that he increased the budget allocation for the provision of medicines to the city health office.
Dr. Suba-an, on the other hand, said the operation of BnB will ensure the attainment of the intermediate goals of Universal Health Care (UHC) which are efficiency, quality services, and access to services and health products.
This, he added, will also lead to the attainment of UHC’s ultimate goals of better health outcomes, a responsive health system, and financial risk protection. (APB/PIA-10)
