Health workers and union representatives of the National Kidney and Transplant Institute, Philippine Heart Center, Lung Center of the Philippines, the Philippine Children’s Medical Center and the East Avenue Medical Center (EAMC), which will be affected by the planned integration and creation of the Philippine Center for Specialized Health Care (PCSHC), said that the Department of Health (DoH) is deceiving them when it claimed that the only objective of the planned integration is to achieve world class health care for the affluent as well as the poor.

BY AUBREY SC MAKILAN
Bulatlat

Health workers and union representatives of four specialty hospitals, classified as government-owned and controlled corporations (GOCC), and the East Avenue Medical Center (EAMC), which will be affected by the planned integration and the creation of the Philippine Center for Specialized Health Care (PCSHC), said that the Department of Health (DoH) is deceiving them when it claimed that it is unaware of the proposed bill; that there will be no lay-offs; and when it said that the only objective of the planned integration is to achieve world class health care for the affluent as well as the poor.

Unaware?

In a dialogue held at the EAMC on Oct. 17, Department of Health (DoH) Undersecretary Dr. Jade del Mundo, explained to the health workers the plan to integrate the National Kidney and Transplant Institute (NKTI), Philippine Heart Center (PHC), Lung Center of the Philippines (LCP), Philippine Children’s Medical Center (PCMC) and East Avenue Medical Center (EAMC). Except EAMC, the hospitals are classified as GOCCs.

However, representatives from these hospitals and the Alliance of Health Workers (AHW) saw the irony when Del Mundo said she is unaware of the proposed bill now pending before the House of Representatives.

“Paano s’ya nagiging mouthpiece ng gobyerno kung di n’ya alam,” (How can she be a mouthpiece of the government if she does not know about it?) said Remy Ismael, AHW national secretary.

Moreover, the health workers were confused when the DoH official said she is not in favor of the bill but kept on convincing them to support the department’s integration plan.

“Mahirap yatang paniwalaan ‘yun a. Malaking panlilinlang iyon. Paano nila hindi malalaman ang bill e yung ginagawa nila ay nakaayon naman dun,”(That is hard to believe. We are being deceived. How can they claim that they are not aware of the bill when everything that they are doing is consistent with it.) they said.

Creation of a special committee

House Bill (HB) 5741 and Senate Bill (SB) 1118 have been filed to integrate the five hospitals and pave the way for the creation of the Philippine Center for Specialized Health Care (PCSHC).

But even in the absence of a law to implement the integration, the so-called Integration Office was already in place at the NKTI, allegedly funded by the four GOCC hospitals.

Aside from this, the health workers were shown a DoH resolution “creating a special (ad hoc) committee to develop and implement an integration plan for certain services, functions and capabilities” of the four specialty hospitals and the EAMC.

The special committee ? to be chaired by the DoH undersecretary from the Office of Special Concerns, and the executive directors of the five hospitals as members ? will carry on with its tasks even with “no legislative action,” it stated.

Addressed to the Board of Trustees (BOT) of the specialty hospitals, the resolution stated that committee will address “a common need to evaluate the pros and cons of sharing limited services and facilities with each other, and joining efforts and resources towards the formulation and adoption of plans and programs to ensure an efficient and effective delivery of health services in the face of an ever burgeoning population.”

Furthermore, the resolution authorizes the special committee “to issue such orders or directives enjoining any and all officers and employees” of the specialty hospitals for the accomplishment of the committee’s tasks.

The resolution was signed by no less than Health Sec. Francisco Duque III, Jose Tale, deputy executive secretary of the Office of the President, and DoH undersecretaries del Mundo, Milagros Fernandez, Alexander Padilla, and Ethelyn Nieto during a regular meeting of the BOT last July 6 at the LCP

Lay-off

The resolution also stated that “the proposed reconfiguration of existing structures through integration is a befitting response to the call for institutional strengthening and streamlining program of the government under Executive Order No. 366.”

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