CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY, March 17, 2011—Misamis Oriental is one of this year’s awardees in the Galing Pook Awards for its excellent innovations in addressing the problems on hospital services and facilities faced by the province.
The Galing Pook award capped Governor Oscar Moreno’s outstanding performance as provincial local chief executive as it recognized his achievements especially in steering the province to greater heights in his three terms of office.
When Moreno first assumed the governor’s mantle in 2004, government hospitals in Misamis Oriental lacked beds,equipment, supplies and suffered from high occupancy rates. With specialist services available only in major cities like Cagayan de Oro, Butuan and Iligan, patients in these hospitals had limited access to crucial services.
Determined to improve this scenario, Moreno embarked on various and meticulous planning sessions that resulted in the crafting of the Municipal Investment Plan for Health and the Provincial Investment Plan for Health.
He also talked with various stakeholders, funding institutions, civic organizations, non-government organizations (NGOs) to make his dream of arresting the declining state of government hospitals in the province a reality.
Successfully gaining the trust of funding agencies, Moreno led his team in pushing the project through. With enough funding, the provincial government hired doctors and surgeons for these hospitals.
Misamis Oriental also tapped, through a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA), the services and expertise of 31 multi-specialist staff from various hospitals in Cagayan de Oro. The agreement included the deployment of complete
operating room staff if these are not available in the concerned hospital. It also allowed the referral of difficult major surgery cases to any of the partner private hospitals at no extra cost to the patient.
More than these, the province also partnered with SMART Communications, which led to the internet connectivity between the hospitals in Misamis Oriental and the medical specialists in Cagayan de Oro, enabling online medical consultations, pre-operation screening, post-operation monitoring and the timely submission of medical reports.
A consignment scheme with interested medical companies offered the lowest possible prices to these government hospitals. The LGU also gained infrastructure development financing through the DOH.
All these innovations substantially addressed the problems on hospital services and facilities in the province.
And because of these, Misamis Oriental is recognized by Malacañang during the Galing Poor awarding Thursday.
The other local government units (LGUs) who are recognized for their outstanding local governance program are Barangay San Antonio, Pasig; and Pasig City; Barangay Tangos in Baliwag, Bulacan; Sta. Cruz, Laguna; Bingawan, Iloilo; Cagwait, Surigao del Sur; Dumingag, Zamboanga del Sur; and provinces of Surigao del Sur and Zamboanga del Norte.
Galing Pook awards are the annual search for the best governance programs across the nation. A stringent screening and judging process looks at positive results and impact, people’s participation and empowerment, innovation, efficiency of program service delivery, and transferability and sustainability.
Since the search began in 1993, at least 150 LGUs have been awarded with over 240 unique programs covering health care, peacekeeping, livelihood, housing and a variety of issues.
Winners of Galing Pook this year provide innovative solutions to disaster response, community-based funeral services, increasing public participation in governance, creating model communities, boosting an agricultural economy, environmental management, and improving health services.
The Galing Pook Awards was launched in 21 October 1993 as a pioneering program that searches and recognizes innovative practices by the LGUs. LGU finalists with outstanding initiatives are carefully selected and
winners are recognized in a very prestigious awards ceremony. The award is conferred by the President.
The awardees of the Galing Pook are chosen from a national search of local governance programs, evaluated through a multilevel rigorous screening process based on positive results and impact, promotion of people�s
participation and empowerment, transferability and sustainability, and efficiency of program service delivery.
Beyond the awards, winning programs become models of good governance promoted for adoption in other communities. They provide useful insights and strategies to find innovative solutions to common problems. More
importantly, they affirm the community and the local government�s commitment to good governance. (Bong D. Fabe)
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