ON March 24 in Quezon City, the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) and the Department of Health (DOH) will lead the launching of a multi-sectoral advocacy campaign dubbed as "Alaga Ka para sa Maayos na Buhay" or simply ALAGA KA in order to provide the country’s 14.7 million indigent families with greater access to primary health care services.
The launch will be simultaneously held in all 17 regions with the lead event taking place at the Quezon Memorial Circle in Quezon City for the National Capital Region and will be witnessed by around 2,000 indigent beneficiaries from different parts of Metro Manila.
"ALAGA KA is a collaboration between PhilHealth, DOH, Local Government Units and other stakeholders in the health sector to make sure that indigent members and those from the near poor segment of the population are properly instructed on how to avail of these basic health services at the rural health units and health centers where they are assigned," announced PhilHealth President and CEO Alexander A. Padilla and Chair of ALAGA KA Steering Committee.
Padilla said that the move is a clear manifestation of the Government’s continuous caring for the less privileged by making primary health care effectively reach the poor through the various services of DOH, LGUs and PhilHealth through its TSeKaP or Tamang Serbisyo para sa Kalusugan ng Pamilya.
TSeKaP provides consultations with a primary care doctor and entitles them to a package of preventive and promotive services designed to keep them healthy and to detect as well any illnesses early on. Services include regular blood pressure monitoring; counseling on breastfeeding, smoking cessation and lifestyle modification; screening services to detect breast and cervical cancers; and digital rectal exam.
Upon the recommendation of the physician, diagnostic tests such as complete blood count, urinalysis, fecalysis, sputum microscopy, fasting blood sugar, Lipid profile, and chest X-ray are also provided. Meanwhile, medicines for asthma (with nebulisation services), acute gastroenteritis with no or mild dehydration; minimal and low risk pneumonia, and urinary tract infection are also made available.
Padilla believes that through TSeKaP, poor families will be more empowered to see a doctor and demand medical attention even without an illness.
Beneficiaries attending the launch events especially in the National Capital Region can expect a sampling of TSeKaP services such as consultations, profiling, history-taking, blood pressure monitoring, body mass index measurement, and counseling.
They will also receive their updated member data record and be able to learn more of their PhilHealth benefits and entitlements and how to avail of these through various seminars and presentations to be conducted by the staff from PhilHealth Regional Offices.
For more details on the ALAGA KA launch, please call 02 441 7442 or log on to www.philhealth.gov.ph. END
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