BUCAS in Primary Health Care

Last week we discussed about problems facing healthcare workers on the job.  Tonight I would like to discuss the environment that healthcare workers are in nowadays.

The DOH opened its first bagong urgent care ambulatory service, dubbed as "BUCAS" in Sto Tomas, Pampanga last March 6, 2024.  DOH Secretary Ted Herbosa shared that the goal "28 for 28 in 28" is to establish 28 primary care centers to serve the 28 million poorest Filipinos by the year 2028".

In the Visayas, the first urgent care ambulatory service was a tripartite collaboration between the Cebu Provincial government (Cebu Provincial Hospital - Carcar City), the Department of Health Central Visayas Center for Health Development (DOH 7) and the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center (VSMMC), aptly called SugBUCAS.   

Hopefully, this innovation will improve the health service delivery at the peripheral areas to streamline admission to tertiary referral hospitals for patients who need critical and intensive care, and to decongest these facilities of patients that can be managed elsewhere.

Primary health care focuses on education, nutrition, preventive medicine and treatment of the most common diseases and injuries as practical means of delivering health care to populations of poor economies and areas with scarce resources.  According to the Primary Health Care strategy following the 1979 Alma Ata Declaration, the eight essential elements of primary health care effectively integrates the health and social development aspects of the health system: (a) safe water and sanitation, (b) food and nutrition, (c) maternal and child health, (d) immunization, (e) curative care, (f) essential drugs, (g) health education, (h) traditional medicine, and (i) community development.  How are we faring in the implementation of universal health care with these developments and directions?

With the barangay as the smallest unit of healthcare service delivery with the barangay health centers, would the BUCAS be sufficient to provide universal health care to the Filipinos?

Join us tonight at 9PM MLA time on #HealthXPH as we discuss BUCAS in primary health care:

T1.  What do you think will be the impact of urgent care and ambulatory services in health care service delivery?

T2.  What else do we need to provide for these BUCAS facilities to succeed?

T3.  If you were a patient, what would be the indicators of success for urgent care ambulatory service facilities?