Residents from seven villages in the eighth district of San Fernando City, La Union started availing the services of the Super Health Center located at the mountainous village of Sibuan-Otong, which opened on Tuesday.

In a phone interview on Wednesday, City Health Office nurse Erika Alexis Diaz said they target to serve at least 100 patients daily on weekdays, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

“The center is open to all but the catchment barangays (villages) are those in district eight,” she said.

These villages are Sagayad, Narra Oeste, Narra Este, Tanquigan, Birunget, Sibuan-Otong, and Bungro.

Diaz said the center will help decongest the number of clients at the lying-in clinic in Sibuan-Otong and make medical services accessible to the residents since the nearest town proper is San Fernando, which is around 16 kilometers away from the newly-opened health facility.

“The residents’ mode of transportation is tricycle since the jeepneys are following travel schedules,” she said.

San Fernando City has two health centers and two lying-in clinics, while the 59 villages have their own health stations.

The Department of Health (DOH) is the lead implementing agency for the construction of Super Health Centers, which costs around PHP10 million to PHP15 million, while funding came from the office of Senator Christopher Lawrence Go.

The center aims to cater to residents in rural areas who have less access to primary health care, especially now with the implementation of the Universal Health Care Law.

Among the services it provides include outpatient clinic and consultation, pharmacy and dispensary, primary clinical laboratory, clinical microscopy, microbiology/parasitology, radiology, birthing and lying-in, tuberculosis consultation with direct sputum smear processing, and microscopy capability.

To date, there are over 600 super health centers around the country, 307 of which were constructed in 2022 and 322 in the following year. (PNA)