1.  Health

Existing Health Facilities

Lanao del Norte’s health needs is served by five provincial government owned hospitals, 22 rural health units (RHU), four private hospitals, 15 private clinics and 137 barangay health stations (BHS).   Their respective locations are shown in the Health Facilities Map.   The hospitals and private clinics in Iligan City and Ozamis City supports the higher level medical needs Lanao del Norte’s population.

The five provincial hospitals, renamed as such by virtue of Sangguniang Panlalawigan (SP) Resolution No.098-2008, have authorized bed capacity ranging from 25 to 100 beds with Baroy Provincial Hospital having the highest number of hospital beds. The five private hospitals on the other hand, have capacities ranging from five to 40 beds.

Table 1. Inventory of Hospitals and Corresponding Authorized Bed Capacity and Number of Health Workers, Lanao del Norte, 2007

Sources:  PHO & PRMC

Hospital Bed -Population Ratio

The province is organized into inter-local health zones (ILHZ) to facilitate an efficient health referral system.  The existing hospital bed capacity against population requirements is configured along the four organized local health zones:  (1) MgaBaTangMaiK, (2) LaMBaT, (3) SaNLaKaSS, and (4) MP3.

Taking account only provincial government hospital facilities, the over-all  hospital bed-population ratio of the province is estimated to be 1:2067 or one bed for every 2,067 population.  In terms of Inter Local Health Zone, the MP3 ILHZ has the least ratio with 15,833 people competing for one hospital bed.  The LaMBaT ILHZ has the most comfortable ratio at one hospital bed for 778 people.

Table 2. Hospital-Bed Population Ratio by Inter Local Health Zone, Provincial Government Hospitals, 2007

Source:  PHO

Capacities of Rural Health Units

All the 22 municipalities of Lanao del Norte have Rural Health Units (RHU).  Only 13 out of the 22 RHUs have full time rural health physicians.  These RHUs provide minor surgical services to the local constituents.  Nine RHUs have standard laboratory facilities catering to the following services: routine hematology, routine urinalysis, routine fecalysis, blood typing and sputum microscopy. Ten RHUs have out-patient package while only two have maternal care package. While nine have serviceable ambulances, most of them in the advance state of deterioration and require high maintenance cost.   All RHU buildings are either dilapidated or need major repairs.

The low capacities of  RHUs is one of the reasons why  constituents with only primary level medical needs prefer to seek medical attention to higher level health care provided by hospitals. Thus, resources of hospitals are tied to primary cases which could have been utilized to more critical medical cases.

Table 3. Capabilities and Accomplishments of RHU by ILHZ, Lanao del Norte, 2006

Source:  PHO

Other Health Facilities

Private Clinics. There are a total of 14 private clinics operating in Lanao del Norte but mostly are in the urban centers of the municipalities of Tubod, Baroy,  Lala, Kapatagan and Kolambugan. Majority of these clinics caters to general medicine cases.  The others are OB-GYNE, pediatrics and dental clinics.

Table 4.  List of Private Clinics, Lanao del Norte, 2007

Source:  PHO

Barangay Health Stations. Out of the 462 barangays in Lanao del Norte municipalities, only  134 have barangay health stations.  These number are yet to be validated and  monitored as to standards of a BHS.

Existing Health Workers

Doctor-Population Ratio. There’s a dearth of doctors in Lanao del Norte.  The government hospital-based doctors totals 25 to cater to 537,439 populace.  This translates to a ratio of one doctor for every  21,498 constituents.  The doctor-population ratio taking into account the doctors in all health facilities is 1:664.

Each private hospital has one resident General Medicine doctor. They also hire part time physicians for shifting. These three hospitals have their own pharmacy and laboratory operating eight hours a day.

Table 5.   Doctor-Population Ratio, Lanao del Norte, 2007

Source: PPDO Computation Based on PHO Data

Future Requirements for Health Workers. The province has a total of 5,519 health personnel providing preventive and curative health services of the province’s populace. The number is not equally distributed  across the 22 municipalities as deployment depend on population. The existing number of health personnel is inadequate to effectively serve the whole Lanao del Norte based on standard.   Based on estimates shown in Table 3.102, there is a need to hire additional health personnel in RHUs including nursing attendants, dentists, medical technologists, midwives, and sanitary inspectors. This is to ensure effective delivery of public health services.

Table 6. Existing Health Workers and Future Requirements, 2008-2013

Source: PPDO Computation Based on PHO Data