DOH opens 846 Botika ng Barangay in Metro Manila

MANILA, Philippines - The Center for Health Development-Metro Manila (CHD-MM) has established a total of 846 Botika ng Barangay (BnB) outlets in Metro Manila as part of the Department of Health’s (DOH) initiative to provide equal health care to citizens. This project aims to ensure that affordable, safe, essential and effective quality medicine is available and accessible to all.

“The DOH’s target is establishing one BnB outlet per barangay. We have already covered almost half of the 1,705 barangays in Metro Manila and we will be targeting the next half after we have identified and evaluated other applicants for the BnB program,” director Janairo stated.

These BnBs are managed by community organizations, non-government organizations and/or the local government units, along with a trained operator and supervising pharmacist in accordance with Administrative Order No. 144.

Each outlet is provided with P25,000 worth of medicine by the local government unit. A counterpart fund is also given for the physical structure, training of operators and provision of BnB supervising pharmacist.

“We are prioritizing areas in the region where BnB outlets shall be instituted to better provide the marginalized, underserved, critical and hard to reach areas with quality and affordable medicine, also guaranteeing the sufficient supply of drugs with generic names at the lowest possible cost,” Janairo emphasized.

There are currently 16,350 BnB outlets nationwide.