Nueva Era is P1M richer for bagging DOH award, Adams gets P900-K cash reward for placing 2nd

LAOAG CITY, March 18 (PIA) – The towns of Nueva Era and Adams in Ilocos Norte topped the major awards in the search for “Excellence in Kalusugan Pangkalahatan” launched by the Department of Health (DOH).

Nueva Era, a third class town, topped the country’s 1,490 municipalities in the search while the upland town of Adams, a fifth class municipality, bagged the second place.
Dr. Fanny Carmelita Domingo, the provincial head of the Department of Health (DOH) office in Ilocos Norte, said Nueva Era town received a trophy and a P1 million cash reward while Adams town also got a trophy and a P900,000-cash reward.

Aside from Nueva Era and Adams, the towns of Carasi and Banna and the provincial government received a consolation prize amounting to P50, 000.

Domingo said the health workers and the local government officials are now improving the implementation of their health programs in preparation for the next round of evaluation.
“Our health workers and local government officials are again preparing for the next round of evaluation for the search this year as we are expecting a bigger cash award,” she said.
For the 2014 Excellence in Kalusugan Pangkalahatan Awards, there were 40 winners whose cash prizes ranged from P50,000 to P1 million.

Earlier, acting DOH Secretary Janette Garin said the health awards will encourage local government participation in achieving universal health care.

“We congratulate the local chief executives for being our champions in health. We would like to encourage other local government officials to make health a priority in their areas so that their constituents are healthy, productive members of the country,” Garin said.

The award aims to recognize LGUs (provinces/cities/municipalities) that exhibited commendable performance on health as reflected in the DOH 2013 LGU Score Card Report.
The winners are selected from among 80 provinces, 35 highly urbanized cities (HUCs), 5 independent component cities (ICCs), 144 component cities (CCs) and 1,490 municipalities. (Freddie G. Lazaro/PIA- 1 Ilocos Norte)