Press Release
November 25, 2005
Reference: MR. JOSSEL I. EBESATE, R.N.
Secretary General, Alliance of Health Workers (AHW)
Tel #4043721 CP #09189276381
After being called an "alarmist" now the realization that we are right after all. In fact our grim assessment is even “sunny” than the evolving realities that are now surfacing.
In a press conference after the National Council Meeting of the Alliance of Health Workers on September 16, 2005, we announced that based on our assessment, the Philippines' health care delivery system will collapse within the next 2 to 3 years, if the present trend of exodus of professionals (especially doctors as nurses), closure of secondary hospitals and nil to meager investment in public primary health care would not be addressed properly. This was initially denied by the Department of Health (DOH) and the World Health Organization (WHO) thereby eliciting an “alarmist” tag from an editorial article in a major daily.
Later, the Philippine Medical Association and the National Institutes of Health in U.P. Manila came out with statistics, painting a grim picture of brain drain in the country.
Just recently, the Private Hospitals' Association of the Philippines (PHAP) reported that even private hospitals in the provinces (many are on secondary level) closes down (more than 1,000 for the last 5 years and only 700 remained) because of lack of doctors and nurses. But the DOLE, through Secretary Patricia Sto. Tomas said that "the brain drain of health professionals is nothing but mere perception," that rightfully elicited a harangued editorial from a major daily.
Now, Malacanang itself acknowledged that indeed we are now facing a serious medical crisis. However, merely acknowledging its presence, would not resolved the problem of impending collapse of the Philippine health care delivery system, we need to dig deeper on the root causes in order to came out with the right solutions immediately.
We in the Alliance of Health Workers is proposing the following measures that should be done immediately in order to avert the collapse of our health care delivery system:
1. Increase the budget for health, equivalent to at least 5% of the GNP as prescribed by the WHO. Our constitution prescribed that health is a basic right, and that the state shall provide for an affordable health services to all. The present P10.4B earmarked by the National Government for health is like salt being rubbed to the wounds of the Filipino people.
2. Re-nationalize the delivery of primary health care and assure full coverage of every barangay in the country. The heart and soul of a rationale and comprehensive public health care delivery system is on the prevention of the disease and maintenance of health, not in the curative and rehabilitative aspect.
3. Immediately implement the provisions of existing laws that raised the salaries and benefits of public health personnel. Republic Act 7305 (Magna Carta of Public Health Workers) had been enacted in 1992 yet until this time only in PGH that budget allocation for hazard pay and subsistence allowance were included in the annual national budget, although such allocation does not still include night differential, laundry, overtime pay, hospitalization and other allowances. How about agencies and hospitals under the DOH and the local government units? Also, the Nursing Act of 2002 that include raising the salaries of government nurses from P9,339.00 to P13,300.00 was yet to be implemented by any public health institution. Ask most of the nurses in the provinces and even here in Metro Manila and they will tell you that if only existing laws on health workers’ salaries and benefits were fully implemented, they would think twice before leaving the country.
4. Provide incentives to private hospitals, private practitioners and specialists that are serving our countrymen in depressed or remote areas. This proposal does not need any explanation why.
5. Implement a comprehensive Health Human Resource Development Plan and Management as provided under RA 7305. An effective health care delivery system need to have a comprehensive plan, starting from the determination of the number of students to take a specific health course, entry to a health profession and training of specialists, to deployment, career development and retirement.
6. Never enact a medical malpractice law. It has been proven in the United States that the only parties that benefited from the discriminatory malpractice law are the insurance companies but never the general public that it was supposed to protect. Even former US President Clinton during his incumbency uttered in exasperation that he regretted the enactment of such law. ###
