The Sangguniang Panlungsod (SP) decided to spare city residents, especially indigents, from the burden of paying should they want to avail of tooth extraction service.
On Tuesday, the SP rejected the request of the city health office (CHO) to charge PHP150 per patient or PHP100 for senior citizens and persons with disabilities (PWDs) for tooth extraction.
Councilor Candice Magdalane Tupas, SP chair of the Committee on Health, Sanitation and Hospital Services, moved that a PHP1 million fund be added to the budget of the CHO.
The amount is intended to benefit some 15,000 projected dental patients annually.
“We are recommending the Dental Health Department (of the CHO) to increase their budget in order to accommodate these patients, especially indigent patients,” she cited in her committee report during the SP regular session.
Tupas said that for indigent patients, PHP150 already means one meal for their family.
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The CHO has to submit a budget proposal incorporating all the needed supplies and medicines for the implementation of the dental program to the office of the city mayor or to the local finance committee.
Councilor Eduardo Peñaredondo, meanwhile, said that they couldjust negotiate with the local finance committee to make a certification that an additional fund of PHP1 million is achievable because the presentation for the 2018 supposed budget of the CHO has already been finished.
Councilor Day Lee Zulueta also said that the office of Iloilo City Lone District Rep. Jerry P.Treñas would also augment funds for the CHO. The health office was advised to just coordinate with the office of the solon.
CHO maintains 21 dental clinics all over the city. [By Perla Lena, PNA]
