Strengthening Rural Health Services Act

Each province must have a Provincial Health Officer (Section 2).
Each congressional district must have a Public Health Dentist (Section 2).
A congressional district with a population of over one hundred fifty thousand must have an additional Public Health Dentist (Section 2).
Public Health Dentist positions must be created immediately upon approval of the Act so that each congressional district shall have one dentist (Section 2).
The existing charity dentists financed by Sweepstakes aid and national fund and the dentists under the Bureau of Health constitute the nucleus for dental service in one hundred and two Congressional Districts (Section 2).

The Act creates rural health units of two classes (Section 2).
A category one (senior) rural health unit must consist of one municipal health officer as head of the unit, one public health nurse, one midwife, and one sanitary inspector (Section 2).
A category two (junior) rural health unit must consist of one physician or public health nurse as head of the unit, and one midwife or sanitary inspector (Section 2).
Each municipality or group of municipal districts with a population of not less than five thousand must have a category one rural health unit (Section 2).
A municipality with more than Thirty-five thousand inhabitants must have an additional category two rural health unit (Section 2).
If the public service so demands, the Director of Health, subject to approval of the Secretary of the Department of Health, may regroup neighboring barrios and assign to each group a rural health unit of whatever category the circumstances warrant (Section 2).

The Act creates four positions of pharmacists detailed in the central office of the Bureau of Health (Section 2).
The four pharmacists may be assigned from time to time to provinces based on conditions warranting such deployment (Section 2).

Existing Presidents of Sanitary Divisions, Municipal Maternity and Charity Clinic Physicians, and Heads of the Units of the Rural Health Units (FOA/PHILCUSA) of the Bureau of Health serve as Municipal Health Officers to head the rural health units (Section 3).
Those individuals remain in their present stations as municipal health officers until their new places of assignment are fixed by the Secretary of Health upon recommendation of the Director of Health (Section 3).
Additional rural health units required under Section 2 must be established within four years from the effectivity of the Act (Section 3).

Municipal Health Officer salary range is P3,000.00–P4,200.00 per annum (Section 4).
Public Health Dentist salary range is 2,400.00–3,120.00 per annum (Section 4).
Public Health Nurse salary range is 2,400.00–2,580.00 per annum (Section 4).
Midwife salary range is 1,440.00–1,800.00 per annum (Section 4).
Provincial Sanitary Inspector salary range is 1,440.00–1,560.00 per annum (Section 4).
Pharmacist salary range is 2,400.00–3,120.00 per annum (Section 4).
Public Health Nurses under the Act receive no cash allowance in lieu of quarters, subsistence, and laundry under Republic Act Numbered Six hundred forty-nine (Section 4).
The salaries of Provincial Health officers follow the salary structure fixed in Republic Act Numbered Six fired seventy-five for District Health Officers (Section 4).

Provincial Health Officers must perform the same duties as those enumerated in section nine hundred eighty of the Revised Administrative Code for District Health Officers (Section 5).
Municipal Health Officers must perform the same duties as those enumerated in section one thousand six of the Revised Administrative Code for Presidents of Sanitary Divisions plus additional duties under Commonwealth Act Numbered Seven hundred four, as amended by Republic Act Numbered One hundred eighty-five, for Maternity and Charity Clinic Physicians (Section 5).
The Secretary of Health, upon recommendation of the Director of Health, must promulgate rules and regulations governing the duties, functions, and distribution of public health nurses, midwives, sanitary inspectors, and public health dentists to intensify public health services and rural sanitation work (Section 6).

If the Health Fund created under section one thousand twelve of the Revised Administrative Code is insufficient to cover the salaries of personnel created under the Act who are regularly paid from that fund, the salary balance must be taken from the fund established under the Act (Section 7).

The Act appropriates four million pesos or so much thereof as may be necessary from the National Treasury to carry out its purposes (Section 8).
At least seven hundred thousand pesos must be used for the purchase of medical and dental supplies for rural areas (Section 8).
Three hundred thousand pesos must be used for the purchase of medical and dental equipment and instruments (Section 8).
The four million pesos appropriation applies for the fiscal year nineteen hundred and fifty-four to nineteen hundred and fifty-five (Section 8).
Thereafter, one bullion pesos must be appropriated in addition to the total appropriation of the preceding year to establish additional rural health units each year to complete one thousand three hundred rural health units envisioned in the program (Section 8).
Thereafter, additional Public Health Dentists must be funded to complete the goal of one hundred two Public Health Dentists (Section 8).

The Office of the Section of Municipal Maternity and Charity Clinics of the Bureau of Hospitals, including its personnel, equipment, supplies, records, and appropriation, must be transferred to the Bureau of Health upon approval and operation of the Act (Section 9).

All laws, administrative orders, executive orders, and regulations, or parts thereof, that are inconsistent with any provision of the Act are repealed (Section 10).