Co-creating An Improved Health System: Masbate Provincial Health Summit
Last April 2, the province of Masbate, led by the Department of Health Center of Health and Development Region V together with the Zuellig Family Foundation, conducted a Provincial Health Summit in Masbate City. It was the first time that the provincial health summit was attended not only by public health leaders and mayors but also other government agencies and NGOs. The idea of having the summit was due to the observation that among the provinces in the Bicol Region, Masbate is one of the provinces who were not performing well when it comes to improving some of their health indicators, particularly their maternal deaths. In 2012, around 16 mothers died due to pregnancy complications in Masbate, all of whom were poor but were not covered by Philhealth. In the province of Masbate, ZFF has 4 active partner LGUs: Cataingan, Mandaon, Milagros and San Jacinto. All of the mayors of our partner municipalities came to the summit along with other mayors from other ...