A post-training monitoring workshop was held for members of the Barangay Health Emergency Response Teams (BHERTS) of San Remigio, Cebu on January 7, 2021.
There were two batches. The first batch had a total of 37 participants from Barangays Poblacion, Anapog, Punta, Toong, Looc, Lawis, Dapdap, Libaong, Tambongon and Kayam. They were composed of 16 barangay health workers (BHWs), 4 barangay nutrition scholars (BNS), 8 barangay councilors and barangay captains, and 9 barangay tanods. The second batch had 32 participants from Barangays Hagnaya, Lambusan, Busogon, Sab-a, Argawanon, Bancasan, Mano, Gaway-gaway, Batad and Canagahan. They were composed of 13 BHWs, 2 BNS, 9 barangay councilors/barangay captains, and 8 barangay tanods. Thus, there was a total of 69 participants in the two trainings.
The participants had their COVID-19 response training on September 14 to 17, 2020 and their first post-training monitoring workshop on October 23, 2020. Since then, they are expected to continue to apply what they have learned during the training and there is a need to assess how much they have continued to do their roles and functions through another post-training monitoring workshop.
The workshop used a tool that monitored their performance on navigating and listing of contacts, their information dissemination of COVID-19 related issues, and how they have facilitated the delivery of continuity of access to essential health services during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The participants were broken down into different workshop groups and answered the tool and presented the results during the plenary session.
During the plenary session, the BHERTs said that they have tried to continue to perform their roles and functions well. Majority of them said that there have been no cases of COVID-19 in their barangays so that they have not been doing contact tracing and filling up of close contacts forms. They said that they have been very happy with this development. Nevertheless, they continued to disseminate information on the health protocols such as continued wearing of face masks and face shields in public and frequent handwashing especially in the public markets and in areas where handwashing facilities have been installed already as part of the USAID project.
The BHERTs also said that they continued to disseminate information on COVID-19 to the communities and continued to exert efforts to deliver essential health services as barangay health workers and barangay nutrition scholars. Such services included telling mothers with infants to have their babies vaccinated, monitoring the blood pressure of hypertensive patients, seeing to it that patients under treatment for tuberculosis maintain their medicines obtained from the health centers, telling pregnant mothers to have their regular prenatal check-ups, and assisting the nurses of the Nurses Deployment Program (NDP) in their home visits.
