The shared experience of the Covid-19 pandemic and its societal effects have illustrated the importance of establishing a more resilient, responsive, and progressive national healthcare system with better health outcome for all Filipinos. That was the vision that guided the Private Sector Advisory Council (PSAC) Health Sector as they presented to President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos, Jr. strategic recommendations in health for the new administration.
On November 24, PSAC Health Sector presented to President Marcos updates on the healthcare priority pillars. The meeting was opened by PSAC strategic convenor and Aboitiz Group President and CEO Sabin Aboitiz, who then turned it over to PSAC Health Sector head and Ayala Healthcare CEO Paolo Borromeo.
Borromeo cited the three priority pillars namely strengthening the PhilHealth system, providing greater drug accessibility, and building capacity and capabilities all for long-term transformation. The foundations for these pillars have been laid since the initial meeting last August, with multi-sectoral explorations and studies now underway.
“It is important to all those involved in the discussions that progress in the healthcare sector be inclusive. PSAC will assist the government in ensuring the recommendations approved by our President will be implemented and will reach our kababayans,” Aboitiz said.
At the Department of Health (DOH) Generics Summit last September 29, PSAC Health Sector, represented by Borromeo, pledged support in improving generics accessibility. The council works hand-in-hand with DOH to ensure that the availability and accessibility of medicines will reach the communities even in far-flung areas. Meanwhile, Food and Drug Administration (FDA) digitization work streams across various internal processes are in progress and target to be completed by the end of this year.
PSAC assists DOH in recommending longer-term solutions for nursing shortages. It also collaborates with the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) on a joint private sector workshop for ‘Nurse Para sa Bayan’ and a ladderized nursing program.
“We are co-creating solutions to help address the pressing healthcare concerns of the Filipinos. We are glad that we had the opportunity to present updates and recommendations to the President on critical issues in healthcare, including addressing health human resource shortages, which is not only a local issue, but a global crisis,” said Borromeo.
PSAC continues to collaborate and conducts consultative discussions with key stakeholders to operationalize the approved recommendations. These alignments on key deliverables are anchored in supporting the DOH-led and PhilHealth-led initiatives. More so, PSAC and DOH tapped the three globally-recognized consulting firms to help them refine and improve the processes and procedures of PhilHealth.
Aside from Borromeo and Aboitiz, the following were also present and provided their input and updates to PBBM: Department of Health (DOH) OIC Secretary Dr. Ma. Rosette Vergeire, DOH Undersecretary for Health Policy and Infrastructure Development Team Dr. Kenneth G. Ronquillo, PhilHealth OIC President and CEO Atty. Eli Dino D. Santos, PhilHealth Acting Senior Vice President for Lead-Universal Healthcare Surge Team Dr. Clementine A. Bautista, FDA Director-General Dr. Samuel Zacate, and FDA Director for the Center for Drug Regulation and Research Jesusa Joyce N. Curanay and other representatives from PhilHealth, FDA and PSAC team.
