The city government of Makati has started distributing free admission kits to patients covered by the Yellow Card who are confined at the city-run Ospital ng Makati.
The latest addition to the benefits enjoyed by members of the Makati Health Plus program, better known as Yellow Card, contains essential items for the use of patients during confinement.
Mayor Abigail Binay said the kit is aimed to provide immediate relief to Yellow Card patients so that they need not spend on basic items upon admission.
“We want to spare them the trouble of spending for basic needs. The amount they will save can instead be used for other urgent needs,” she said.
According to OsMak medical director Dr. Vergel Binay, the city has allocated some 11,893 admission kits for distribution to the intended beneficiaries, ideally upon admission as a patient.
Each kit comes in a transparent plastic bag and contains a digital thermometer, face towel, calibrated plastic cup, medicine cup, kidney basin, bathroom soap, toothbrush, toothpaste, spoon and fork, a roll of tissue paper, and a bottle of isopropyl alcohol.
Yellow Card holders and registered dependents are entitled to free outpatient consultation and subsidized hospitalization and diagnostic tests at OsMak, which recently earned its ISO 9001:2015 certification.
Residents can also be referred to partner-facilities like the Makati Medical Center to avail themselves of specialized medical and diagnostic services that may not be not available at OsMak, using their Yellow Card.
The card also gives them access to free medicines, including maintenance medicines for hypertension, diabetes and other lifestyle diseases, distributed through eight pharmacy outlets in strategic locations throughout the city.
Through an agreement signed by the mayor with a private company last year, Yellow Card beneficiaries with kidney diseases have been able to receive fully subsidized dialysis treatments in private freestanding dialysis centers in Makati and other nearby locations.
Meanwhile, the primary health care needs of residents are being provided by 26 barangay health centers, supported by six satellite laboratories linked to OsMak.