President Marcos has stressed the need to invest in women's health as it has a "multiplier effect" in the country's healthcare system.
Health Secretary Teodoro Herbosa said Marcos made the statement during a sectoral meeting on Wednesday, May 22.
The President emphasized the need to invest in women’s health because women are marginalized and they are often the ones who take care of the whole family.
He added that this has a multiplier effect in the healthcare system.
"[W]e talked about the reforms that the President wants implemented in our healthcare system. It focused really on… emphasis on primary care. We talked about how the idea of we’re spending a lot of money on improving a lot of our specialty hospitals but a lot of the diseases that Filipinos die from are actually preventable if we have good primary care services at the local level," Herbosa said in a palace briefing on Wednesday.
"So this was the gist of the presentation where we will focus on: number one, health promotion and disease prevention; number two, acute care; and, number three, women’s health," he added.
During the meeting, the Department of Health presented the National Human Resources Master Plan 2020-2040, which aims to address the gap in human resources for health. This is in keeping with the Philippines’ commitment to meeting the UN sustainable development goals.
In the discussion, the President highlighted the importance of a few points from the national plan, including the focus on human resources and preventive healthcare, the Bagong Urgent Care and Ambulatory Services, the corporatization of tertiary hospitals, investing in women’s health, and the need to include the five gems of tourism in the hospital system beyond first aid.