287 OFWs on Saipan receive free health screening

SUSUPE, Saipan – At least 287 Filipino workers on Saipan received free health screening on Sunday morning courtesy of volunteer Filipino nurses and doctors.

The free medical screening, exclusively covered by GMANews.TV, included eye checkup, blood pressure check, and blood sugar level check.

“I’m thankful for this free check up; it saves me money. I also get to monitor my blood sugar and blood pressure, and the condition of my eyes," Shirley Leah Igrobay, 45, said in an interview right after her eye pressure checkup.

Many of the workers were repeat patients of the free health screening which is held every quarter on Saipan, the capital of the US Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), where most of the 20,000 foreign workers are from the Philippines.

Joan Lourdes Lavilla, Philippine labor attache to the CNMI, said considering the high cost of medical consultations, the free health checkup “is a big help to workers in terms of savings."

“Other than the savings, they get to know their health condition and the results serve as their guidance. For example, if the nurses determined that they have high blood pressure, then they have to start taking precautionary measures. It’s life-saving," Lavilla said.

The Philippine consulate general in the CNMI, the Philippine Overseas Labor Office and the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration, in collaboration with volunteer nurses and doctors from the Hardt Eye Clinic, the Pacific Medical Center and the Commonwealth Health Center, made the free health check up possible.

Besides the health screening, the Philippine Consulate General also put up a help desk on Sunday to help answer Filipino workers’ queries on labor and consulate matters. - Haidee V. Eugenio, GMANews.TV » Migrante declares ‘No Remittance

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