Enjoyed running in Cebu City downtown. Its sad that the area has become polluted. Feel na feel kong ultra runner ako e. haha! :D Enjoys learning from the discussions among Local Chief Executives and Municipal Health Officers on access to medicines, affordability and availability of medicines, among others. The objective is to be able to provide effective health services to the public especially to the vulnerable at the local level in coordination with the national level implementers. Among the challenges that struck me were: 1. How to strike a balance between inviting citizens who have different cultural and religious beliefs to access medicines provided to them while respecting their views. 2. How to make procurement and distribution of medicines more responsive, maybe a BUB approach can be done where LGUs would be the one to identify their needs rather than just receiving the medicines that the DOH procured even if those are not what they really need. 3. How to make the Government Procurement Reform Act more effective in terms of contributing to the efficiency of procurement of medicines. There were complaints that rather than being able to buy cheper medicines in a more timely manner, compliance with RA 9184 hinders it. Medicines maybe should be treated distinctly from other goods which have different shelf life, etc. Hmmm.. Good points: 1. Pharmaceutical companies are becoming more and more responsible in terms of ensuring that effective and cheap medicines are provided to the people; that they police their ranks. 2. DOH has several access to health/ medicines programs. 3. Generic medicines have become popular and that big companies do not anymore compete with them or try to argue their effectiveness, etc. 4. Many LGUs sincerely work to provide effective health services to their constituents.
Posted on: Tue, 19 Aug 2014 05:02:19 +0000