The Pampanga Malward has served 455 individuals who sought medical consultation and 124 out-patients who underwent laboratory services, records for April this year shows.
Rustica R. Butiu, provincial nutrition action officer and head of the Malward, revealed that said outpatients were attended to by Drs. Trisha Medina, regular physician; Michael and Natalie Rivera; and Francel Villarin.
Among the laboratory services provided by the Malward are urinalysis, fecalysis, CBC, platelet, RBS, and blood typing, Butiu added.
According to Butiu, “we have likewise been supplying the food requirements of the inmates at the provincial jail”.
She disclosed that each of the 630 inmates get their three meals daily, seven days a week from the PNC, “we make sure that they get nutritious and fresh food, since we do our marketing daily and then give it to them for cooking”.
This has been going on for a year now since Governor Lilia G. Pineda directed Butiu and her team to take charge of this and as Butiu claims, “because of this system, we have seen a marked improvement in the health of the inmates”.
Butiu, a nutritionist, is also dietitian of the Ricardo Rodriguez Memorial Hospital and takes charge of the feeding program for Aetas as part of the creative team on the Agro-Tourism project in Nabuclod, Floridablanca town.
Meanwhile, in an effort to update the knowledge of nutritionists, Butiu and other nutrition-related workers shall attend a convention of the Philippine Society of Nutritionists and Dietitians in Tagaytay from May 16 to 18.
The theme of the convention is Green Quest: Farm to Plate to Farm which aims to make environmental health high in the agenda of nutrition stakeholders, as it recognizes the importance of environmental sustainability to food and nutrition security.
Butiu expressed optimism that they will come back from this convention better informed and more committed to the upgrading of nutrition program implementation in Pampanga. (Eloisa P. Galang, Pampanga PIO)
