WV's 480 botika ng barangay sell cheaper medicines
Cheap er, safe, effective and quality medicines are now available at the 480 Botika Ng Barangay in Western Visayas.
This was reported by Dr. Caesar B. Guanco, DOH VI's regional coordinator of the Botika ng Barangay program in an interview with the Philippine Information Agency here.
Dr. Guanco said that Botika ng Barangay is a product of a memorandum of understanding between the Department of Health, PCSO and the Ph ilippine International Trade Inc.
Botika Ng Barangay is also one of the priority programs of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo set up to provide safe, effective, quality medicines available, and very accessible for the majority of Filipin os, Dr. Guanco said.
Dr. Guanco said that Botika ng Barangay can be set up and managed by LGUs or by an organized body of the community in order to be efficient and effective. The organization may be a cooperative, People's Organization or Non-Government Organization. The interested operator when qualified will have a Memorandum of Agreement signed with the DOH. The DOH trains the designated operator of the Botika ng Bayan on supply and financial management and proper care of medicines. Also the Botika ng Barangay is required to have a supervising pharmacist.
The medicines sold at the Botika Ng Barangay are: amoxicillin, cotrimoxasole, paracetamol, mefenamic acid, loperamide, ketoconazole cream and povidone iodine. These are sold at very affordable prices.
He recalled that the Botika Ng Barangay was started in Western Visayas in the middle of year 2004 with only 60 Botika. In 2005 a total of 382 were established and was further added with another 38 Botika ng Barangay set up by an NGO in the province of Antique. For 2006, the DOH VI targets to set up 300 Botika ng Barangay. One third of the 43 towns of Iloilo province has already set up Botika Ng Barangay.
Setting up drug outlets that sell cheap quality medicines in areas where these are mostly needed was one of the priorities set by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in her 2001 State of the Nation Address to alleviate poverty.
President Arroyo in one of her statemen ts said that "a healthy citizenry is the cornerstone of a progressive nation."
(T.Villavert/PIA)