The Department of Health Western Visayas Center for Health Development (DOH WV CHD) is eyeing to open its first off-site Bagong Urgent Care and Ambulatory Services (BUCAS) center in Batad, Iloilo.
Currently, DOH has three on-site centers at its retained hospitals: Western Visayas Medical Center, Western Visayas Sanitarium and General Hospital and the Don Jose Monfort Medical Center.
“These BUCAS centers serve as a crucial bridge between primary care and hospital services, making healthcare more responsive, efficient and patient-centered,” DOH WV CHD Regional Director Helen Tobias said in a media conference on Tuesday afternoon.
The initiative provides timely urgent care and ambulatory services, helping decongest hospitals while ensuring that patients receive immediate medical attention for non-life-threatening conditions, she added.
BUCAS was established to improve access to urgent but non-life-threatening medical services in government hospitals and serve as an intermediate service unit between the emergency room and the outpatient department.
Tobias said the construction of the proposed BUCAS center in Batad is ongoing and eyed for completion in the next two to three years.
Once finished, it will be managed by the Don Jose Monfort Medical Center.
DOH WV CHD Health Facilities Development Unit Nurse IV Christine Mosqueda said the town of Batad fitted the criteria that the center should be established in an area with no access to hospitals within an hour travel period.
Mosqueda added that Iloilo was chosen as the pilot site for the DOH Health System Resilience, a five-year project that focuses on building climate-resilient provincial health systems, strengthening health emergency response systems and advancing digital health transformation.
Meanwhile, from January up to the second week of June this year, the BUCAS center at WVMC served 8,265 patients, and 1,922 at the Don Jose Monfort Medical Center.
The newly-opened center at the Western Visayas Sanitarium and General Hospital can serve up to 50 patients a day. (PNA)