Biggest Medical Mission in the World

TODAY, some two million patients get treated, and by any luck, one individual walks his way to the millionaires' row if he wins in the P75M richer tax-free lotto for this year's diamond anniversary draw of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO). 

The PCSO offers the P75-million lotto, in time for the agency's 75th Anniversary today. 

"For the 75 years of continued support, we are giving away more than P100M pesos in our diamond anniversary traditional Sweepstakes Draw as our way of thanking Filipinos, says PCSO Visayas director William Medici during a press conference here.  

A huge part of the lotto proceeds get poured into the agency's social services programs.  

According to Dr. Larry Cedro, 30% of the PCSO lotto go to charity upon which some 163,940 individual patients across the country have benefited from the agency's medical assistance program.  

Health authorities revealed that an estimated 6,660 Boholano patients have benefited from the agency's charity funds and other services. 

From the proceeds, PCSO also maintains endowment accounts at the Gov. Celestino Gallares Memorial Hospital in Tagbilaran and some municipal health facilities. 

Today, more than 100,000 doctors, dentists, nurses, pharmacists, health workers, medical professionals and concerned citizens from government and private sector perform the record breaking biggest act of charity in the country. 

All of Bohol's 1109 barangays would be covered in the mission, says Capitol Health consultant Fancy Baluyot.  

The "100 Percent in One Day" project of the PCSO's entails nationwide medical, dental and information- gathering mission to cover all of the country's 41,995 barangays.  

The project is envisioned to be both the 75th Anniversary of PCSO and a window for marginalized Filipinos from all over the country to access medical care and organized charity assistance, says Rosario Uriarte, PCSO General Manager and Vice Chair.  

Four doctors, two dentists, four nurses and one pharmacist assisted by health professionals, army doctors and Barangay health workers and tanods set-up the mission areas and its security.  

Aside from general checkups, minor surgeries like the removal of cataracts and lumps, dental services, eye examinations, bone scan and ear check monitor will be available in selected medical mission sites located in government hospitals and rural clinics.

Feeding missions are also coordinated by church based groups to coincide with the missions, sources revealed. 

The mission also distributes free medicines to patients at the sites, mission coordinators in Bohol say. 

"PCSO has been doing monthly medical and dental missions for several years now," says Uriarte. "But this is the first time we'll hold it in large scale in one day, targeting more than two million patients." 

The feeding missions would be conducted in selected barangays, mostly in depressed areas, in coordination with church-based groups and civic organizations.  

The "One Hundred Percent in One Day" project, according to Uriarte, is envisioned to be an annual activity that will serve as a vehicle for spreading the "charity virus," and make organized and systematic sharing coupled with volunteerism as a way of life for Filipinos. (PIA)

Bohol Wants Tourism Spots Gun-free

BOHOL police officials do not just want gun-free tourism areas here. 

In a recent move presented to the Provincial Tourism Council, PSSupt. Edgardo Ingking bared the plan to transform tourism areas into "Discipline Zones" (DZ). 

"We want to help create an environment to sustain Bohol's tourism potential by strictly imposing order, maintain and sustain the law enforcement efforts by making sure basic laws are followed," he told council members. 

The police proposal also dovetails with the out-going tourism council chairman Peter Dejaresco who said Bohol's greatest challenge is to sustain its tourism momentum. 

"Unchecked incivility and disorder breeds crime," Ingking, who may have this as his last legacy to Bohol before he bows out as provincial commander here stressed. 

In designated pilot tourism areas, he explained, police would go for zero crime tolerance on basic laws in traffic, squatting, pollution, illegal vending, sanitation and applicable local ordinances. 

In these areas, anti-littering, smoking areas, traffic laws, environmental laws, discipline and some local ordinances like stakeholder uniforms may be strictly enforced to impose order. 

To be implemented in tandem with the business sector, police and the civil society, the "Discipline Zone" plan creates a formidable force against crimes, he assured. 

Set to be a three phased plan, the DZ would start its three month pilot implementation after the stakeholders shall have identified the areas. 

Stakeholders would be trained, craft strategies and formulate plans, propagate the communication plan to generate awareness, deploy personnel and asses the situation monthly. 

The overall aim is to have the Department of Tourism (DOT) accredit the place as Discipline Zone, the Camp Dagohoy based cop said. 

Ingking admitted that the plan was an offshoot of the Environmental Security on Tourism workshop hailed by DOT Undersecretary Salvador Sarabia a few months ago. 

Asked which tourism areas he want to pilot, the top cop said he mulled the [plan for Panglao Island or Loboc, well established tourism areas already. (PIA) 

HIV AIDS Hospital in Bohol Philippines

Health authorities in Bohol vow to activate nine more Hospital Acquired Immuno Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) Core Team (HACT) after taking the cue from Bohol regional hospital. 

According to Board Member Cesar Tomas Lopez, Sangguniang Panlalawigan Committee on Health, after the reactivation of the Gov. Celestino Gallares Memorial Hospital HACT and Center, other government hospitals would follow suit. 

In fact, there is already a step to identify more government and private hospitals for possible HACT Centers, Lopez, who is also a doctor, added.

 

The move, one of the more proactive steps by local authorities against the threat HIV AIDS however dents less over the large misinformation about the disease. 

AIDS, a disease that could be fatal to people affected by it, stigmatizing to their families can be preventable provided people practice healthy and safe sex and blood transfusions. 

But operating on the context of largely migrating Boholanos, local authorities have drafted anti-HIV AIDS measures to map out a local response to the disease and other sexually transmitted infections. 

Lopez, who, along with the Provincial HIV AIDS Multi-Sectoral Council (PHAMSC) he chairs, has lobbied for the activation of the HACT in the rural health units of Ubay, Talibon and Carmen this time said next in line would be government hospitals. 

A HACT is a team of doctor, a nurse, medical technologist and a social worker basically equipped the respond to the proper management in the onset of a possible case of infection, says Provincial HIV AIDS coordinator Mila Israel.

These personnel based in hospitals undergo at least two weeks of intensive training in disease control and management and would be the patient's support team before they could be referred to the regional treatment hub at the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center in nearby Cebu, she explained. (PIA)