After personally witnessing the struggles of patients, Vice President Leni Robredo wished her office had more resources to extend help to more people in need of medical care.
Robredo personally oversees the Office of the Vice President’s (OVP) projects—the Swab Cab’s free mobile antigen testing and the Bayanihan E-Konsulta’s service. Just recently, she also launched the Mobile Lab, which offers free chest x-ray and complete blood count services to selected areas.
“Sa parte ng OVP, laging nandiyan yung ‘kung mas marami lang resources natin, mas marami sana tayong matutulungan’. Pero mapalad din kami na kahit papaano, maraming tumutulong. Kaya maraming salamat sainyong lahat (On the OVP’s part, there is always that ‘if we only have more resources, we can help more.’ But we are still lucky because a lot of people are helping. That’s why thank you to all of you),” she said in a Facebook post Wednesday, April 21.
The vice president said that she has encountered many patients who are worried about paying for the services that her office offers.
Her team often sends an ambulance to pick up patients from their residences and bring them to the site of the Mobile Lab where they can get tested.
She has called on local government units (LGUs) to replicate her Mobile Lab project since it is “very doable.” She said that conducting a free mobile lab service at least once or twice a week will help decongest hospitals and provided needed medical attention to the patients.
The OVP also continues to send COVID Care Kits, which consists of a digital thermometer, pulse oximeter, face masks, sanitizer, basic medicines, and monitoring sheet, to the Bayanihan E-Konsulta’s patients.
A post by a volunteer doctor on Facebook commended the OVP for sending the kit because the patients can better monitor their symptoms with the pulse oximeter.
The lady official noted that so far, the initiative has “55 COVID graduates,” which means that they’ve already completed the 14-day monitoring without symptoms.
“Sana, araw araw, ganito na lang yung kuwento (I hope every day, the stories are like this),” she said.
The OVP has a meager P900-million budget for 2021, P229 million of which was a last-minute hike during last year’s budget deliberations.
Originally, the OVP requested a P723.39 million budget, which included an allocation for research and development. The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) approved only P679.74 million before Congress took over and recognized Robredo’s COVID-19 response.