Only 200 of 600 health facilities under HFEP are functional, says DOH

Only 200 out of 600 health centers nationwide under the Department of Health’s health facilities enhancement program (HFEP) are functioning due to lack of personnel, the DOH said.

The DOH made the disclosure during the House plenary deliberations on the agency’s proposed P253 billion budget for 2026.

“For sa health centers po, just to give an actual number, only 200 out of 600 are functioning. The LGUs (local government units) which were able to hire doctors for these health centers, these are the ones functioning,” Bataan Representative Albert Garcia, the designated DOH budget sponsor before the House plenary, said during the questioning of Akbayan party-list Representative Chel Diokno.

“But for LGUs who were not able to hire personnel, those are the non-functioning health centers,” he added.

Garcia, however, clarified that the lack of personnel to man the health centers does not make them ghost projects.

“These are not ghost projects. They exist, but due to lack of personnel and healthcare professionals to run them, they are not functioning,” he said.

“They are waiting to be activated, and they are hoping that the LGUs are able to hire the personnel needed for the centers to be able to provide service to our people,” he added.

Diokno said such a ratio is unacceptable, given that P170 billion has been allocated to HFEP infrastructure and equipment in the past decade and that the Commission on Audit already ordered the DOH to implement a stronger procurement, monitoring, and evaluation systems for HFEP back in 2017.

“COA said the DOH should be the one fixing the HFEP problems because otherwise, it is the poor people who will be deprived of the services due them,” Diokno said.

Garcia then said that the HFEP are established based on requests from LGUs and a memorandum of agreement between the LGUs and DOH, but not LGUs are able to deliver on its responsibility to hire personnel for the said health centers.

“The DOH entered a MOA with the LGUs in good faith, thinking the LGUs will hold up their end of responsibility in hiring personnel for the health facilities. But some LGUs are not able to do the hiring of doctors, nurses, midwives due to lack of funding, and I would say the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) could help address this,” Garcia said.

Still, Diokno said DOH should be able to address this problem by now since the COA observation is already seven years old.

“I'm wondering why it's been seven years since this performance audit report was made but only now that these controls are being strengthened,” he said. — BM, GMA Integrated News