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[av_heading heading=’ Duterte’s ‘Libreng Gamot’ helps 4T poor WV patients’ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=” subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=”][/av_heading]
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ILOILO City – More indigent patients in Western Visayas benefited from President Rodrigo Duterte’s Libreng Gamot sa Masa (LinGap sa Masa) program.
Data from the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Region 6 showed that as of July 31, money disbursed reached P27.1 million out of its P138-million fund for free medicines.
DSWD-6 information officer May Castillo said the P27.1 million helped purchase the medicines of 4,436 patients from different parts of the region.
She said 3,539 of these patients fell under the “family head and other needy adult” (FHONA) client category of the program. DSWD-6 spent P19.4 million for their medicines.
Also, 788 senior citizens availed themselves of free medicines worth P5.8 million; 22 “women in especially difficult circumstances” (WEDC) with total cost of medicines reaching P123,788; and 87 persons with disabilities with total cost of medicines hitting P1.7 million.
Castillo said they have not received requests from indigents who fell within the “children in need of special protection” (CNSP) and “youth in need of special protection” (YNSP) categories.
With the P27.1-million expenditure as of July 31, the department still has around P110.9 million to spend for the free medicines of patients until the end of the year.
To expand the utilization of the funds,DSWD-6 recently sought the expansion of the program coverage to three more hospitals: Dr. Rafael S. Tumbokon Memorial Hospital in Kalibo, Aklan; Roxas Memorial Provincial Hospital in Roxas City, Capiz; and Angel Salazar Memorial General Hospital in San Jose de Buenavista, Antique.
Castillo said they were still working on a partnership with these provincial hospitals.
DSWD-6 started to implement the President’s LinGap sa Masa program March this year in partnership with the Western Visayas Medical Center (WVMC) in Mandurrriao, Iloilo City.
Qualified as beneficiaries are families or individuals who are poor, vulnerable or disadvantaged; those who are in crisis situations based on the assessment of social workers; those in the formal sector and poor based on the Listahanan of DSWD; government employees and contract of service workers and soldiers and police who were wounded in the line of duty.
Patients have to submit a doctor’s prescription, certificate of indigency and valid identification card.
Eligible patients will be issued a DSWD LinGap sa Masa Guarantee Letter (GL) indicating the needed amount of medicines. It will be presented to the pharmacy of the hospital to get free medicines. (PNA)
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