Press Statement
July 27, 2013
Reference:
Reference:
Mr. Jossel I. Ebesate, RN
Contact No: 09189276381
The Alliance of Health Workers (AHW) told the
Department of Health (DOH) to stop deceiving the public in pursuing
public-private partnership (PPP) of public hospitals and health services.
“PPP, modernization, or whatever the DOH calls it, the
fact is, the government is allowing private investors to profit from health
service provision in public hospitals. Public health service provision is the
duty of the government,” said Jossel Ebesate, national president of the
Alliance of Health Workers.
Ebesate reacted to the statement of DOH Secretary
Enrique Ona on Friday, July 26, that the DOH was “not in favor
of privatization”.
Ebesate stressed that if indeed the government is
indeed not for privatization it should have funded the modernization and
improvement of public hospital facilities years ago, instead of passing this role
to profiteering private investors. He said that since 1990s, the government
through the DOH has been trying to privatize hospitals to cover up for its
failure to adequately fund public hospitals and provide for accessible health
services to the people.
“The DOH through the years is just changing the terms
and packaging, but it is the same privatization policy pushed by the previous
administrations.
“Once private investors are allowed into social
services like health, whether through PPP, corporatization, or outright sale,
the primary purpose is huge profit generation, thus replacing service
orientation. This has been proven time and again, most recently with the dramatic
increases in water bills as result of privatization of water services,” said
Ebesate.
“The DOH is doing a disservice to the Filipino people
by consciously making it appear that PPP will benefit the people. The poor
people’s experiences in public hospitals up for privatization prove otherwise.
Based on our experience in most public hospitals, PPP of selected services only
jacked up the price of health services at the expense of our poor patients,”
Ebesate, explained.
Ebesate said that Secretary Enrique Ona was further
confusing the public by lumping up medical mission initiatives with
privatization of health services. #
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