UP Kilos Na supports the All-UP Workers Alliance and the Alliance of Health Workers in condemning the imposition of charges on previously free laboratory procedures for Class D patients of PGH and for adding new requirements to avail for free of succeeding examinations previously availed of free of charge. These changes are contained in the July 4, 2013 Memorandum of PGH Director Jose C. Gonzales with the subject: “Revised Rates of the Department of Laboratories.”
The memo details the “revised rates” for laboratory exams in PGH starting July 12, 2013. Prior to this issuance of the memorandum, 192 of 254 laboratory procedures/examinations were free for Class D patients of PGH. Now with the new policy, only 44 are free for the FIRST examinations. Payment for the succeeding examinations “maybe (underscoring ours) waived upon the recommendation of the Department Chair and the submission of the following documents for the purpose of requesting for a guarantee letter:
- Clinical Abstract with a therapeutic plan and approximate cost of treatment
- Personal letter of the patient or family to the congressman of his/her place of residence requesting for financial assistance. “
Class D patients in PGH are those whose monthly income is around or below the National Capital Region minimum wage rate. Also included in Class D are those who are recent victims of fire, floods and other natural disaster and patients with chronic debilitating disease or catastrophic illness. In PGH’s charity wards and charity ICU, almost 98% of the patients are Class D.
PGH has already a system for the processing of a Class D category which is handled by its Medical Social Services Department (MSSD). It already takes a tremendous amount of time to line up for the various requirements to prove one’s abject poverty and to be categorized as Class D patient in PGH. The policy related to changes in the laboratory fees of PGH as contained in the memo clearly makes it more difficult for the poor to access the services of the PGH. This new policy will further add to the travails of our poor: request for reconsideration from the Chair of a PGH Department and a letter for financial assistance from the congressman or representative of his/her province.
The reduction of the number of free laboratory examinations for Class D patients and the additional requirements to avail of free service for succeeding examinations are being implemented at a time when the allocation for Maintenance and Other Operating Expenses (MOOE) of PGH has increased from P305.549 million in 2012 to over twice that amount to P616.903 million for 2013! This budget increase is partly due to the strong public support for the call and mobilization of the UP community for greater state subsidy for UP and PGH.
UP Kilos Na supported in 2010 the fight of Dr. Gonzales against his unjust ouster as PGH Director by the Roman Administration. The issue was principally against the violation of the principles of democratic governance of the Roman administration for unseating Dr. Gonzales who was democratically elected by the BOR and who had already taken his oath of office as Director. But UP Kilos Na support for Dr. Gonzales was his stand against the setting up of a private medical laboratory in the guise of providing clinics for PGH doctors inside the PGH compound.
In 2010, when a forum was held at the Philippine General Hospital on the proposed transformation of FMAB into a private facility run by the Daniel Mercado Medical Center, Dr. Jose Gonzales, then not holding any administrative position spoke against such move. A report by Krizia C. Borromeo of that meeting posted on September 28, 2010 on the MEDICS, the official student publication of the UP College of Medicine (http://www.upmedics.com/2010/09/pgh-privatization-will-fmab-bring-more.html, accessed 15 July 2013) quoted Dr. Gonzales as saying that “PGH is a service hospital for economically depressed patients who can’t afford to see private doctors.” Further, he is quoted as saying “May karapatan ang mahihirap. We should do our part to serve the people..kung hindi walang mangyayari. The public-private partnership will not solve the root cause of the problem—inefficiency.”
But now PGH Director Jose C. Gonzales considers free laboratory services to the poor inefficient and under the guise of “rationalization” and “efficiency” has in fact imposed charges on previously free availment of procedures and added bureaucratic layers to the process. While ostensibly this new policy is supposed to discourage PGH doctors from ordering unnecessary laboratory procedures for poor patients, it has in fact further shifted the burden to the poor patients who now have to pay or to beg for a waiver from the Department Chair. The memo came out in inopportune time when health inequalities in our society are becoming more blatant. The new policy only worsened the already unhealthy state of many of our society’s poor population, and trounced their right to health. Coupled with the increase in charges in the pay wards and private rooms of PGH, the “ospital ng bayan” is now trodding the path of private hospitals which are profit centers with charity patients.
UP Kilos Na condemns this betrayal of PGH Director Jose C. Gonzales of his promise to make PGH more accessible to the poor; to find ways to reduce the long lines faced by poor patients seeking PGH’s services and to stand up against commercialization of PGH such as the FMAB scheme of the previous PGH Administration. Instead under the guise of rationalization, increasing efficiency and preventing superfluous orders for laboratory examinations, he is now implementing a scheme of requiring poor patients to pay. Rather squeezing the poor of every ounce to recover costs, health care should be given to them for free! The brunt of state abandonment of our health care and services must not be passed on to the poor.
UP Kilos Na therefore urges PGH Director Jose C. Gonzales to rescind this discriminatory anti-poor policy. We call on administrators, faculty, and staff of PGH to forge strong solidarity with other progressive sectors of our society to clamor for higher health budget! Together we should stand to arrest the deteriorating health of our health services! The duty of health professionals is not just to save lives but to prevent the subjection of lives to contrived unhealthy and dehumanizing conditions!
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