SM Foundation Turns Over Rehabilitated Health Center in Zamboanga City

Zamboanga City – SM Foundation turned over the rehabilitated Putik Health Center to the Zamboanga City government, reinforcing access to primary healthcare services for residents of Barangay Putik in the city’s second district.

Established in the early 1990s, the Putik Health Center has long served as a frontline facility for community health services. Barangay Putik has a population of 23,247 as of 2025, making the center a critical hub for preventive care, treatment, and health monitoring.

The rehabilitation improved the facility to better support the delivery of essential health programs. The health center provides consultation and treatment services, with free medications given when available, and implements the Expanded Program for Immunization, covering BCG, hepatitis at birth, pentavalent vaccines, polio vaccines, and measles, mumps and rubella.

Its nutrition services include regular Operation Timbang, food supplementation, monitoring of severely malnourished children below five years old, vitamin A supplementation for infants, and regular deworming for children aged one to below 19. The center also offers family planning services for women of reproductive age, including natural family planning, oral contraceptives, Implanon, IUD insertion, and counseling for eligible women.

Maternal care services include prenatal, natal, and postnatal care, while the National Tuberculosis Program focuses on case finding, directly observed treatment, and care for patients with multidrug resistant tuberculosis. The health center also monitors and supports patients with non-communicable diseases such as hypertension, diabetes mellitus, and cardiovascular diseases, subject to the availability of medicines.

In addition, the facility conducts surveillance and monitoring of emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases and implements environmental sanitation programs to promote public health and disease prevention.

The turnover of the rehabilitated Putik Health Center is part of SM Foundation’s Health and Medical Program, which aims to strengthen public healthcare facilities across the country. To date, the Foundation has supported more than 200 health centers nationwide, serving over seven million patients, particularly in vulnerable communities.