Gov’t Neglecting Health – Health NGO
(First of two parts)

Five out of ten Filipinos die without receiving medical attention.  Ten mothers die daily because of pregnancy and childbirth-related cases.  And yet the Arroyo government spends a mere P0.33 ($0.006 at an exchange rate of $1=P49) per day for the health of every Filipino. It is even implementing programs that are not meant to make health services accessible to the ordinary Filipino but to earn revenues from medical tourism, Dr.Gene Nisperos of the Health Alliance for Democracy said. 

BY AUBREY MAKILAN
Bulatlat

Along with environmental tragedies, diseases plagued the country in 2006. There were outbreaks of malaria, dengue, diarrhea and neonatal sepsis.

Neonatal sepsis issue claimed the lives of at least seven infants at the Rizal Medical Center (RMC). Data from the Department of Health (DoH) revealed that there had been 69 deaths from neonatal sepsis at RMC from January to October 15 last year, and 45 deaths during the same period in 2005. The Department of Health has filed administrative charges against several doctors and staff of RMC.

The Health Alliance for Democracy (HEAD) agrees with the DOH that there was negligence on the part of the staff of RMC. But Dr. Gene Nisperos, secretary general of HEAD, said that “the negligence cuts across all levels of the public health care delivery system.”

Nisperos said that the RMC issue exposed the failure of the DoH to fulfill its obligations, which include the supervision of state-run hospitals, to ensure the efficacy and accessibility of medical services to ordinary Filipinos.

Meanwhile, hundreds of dengue and malaria patients have filled even the hallways of hospitals. Dengue severely affected the National Capital Region, Region 4A and the Cordillera region.

What is depressing, Nisperos said, is that these diseases are preventable.

Even before the government concerns itself with expensive biomedical procedures, Nisperos said, it should first implement proper public health measures like clean water and sanitation. However, Nisperos said, the government failed miserably in this aspect.  He cited DoH data which showed that eight of the top ten causes of morbidity in the country are infectious in nature. In terms of infant mortality, at least six out of the top ten causes are infectious diseases. Similarly, data regarding child mortality across three different age groups (1-4 years, 5-9 years, and 10-14 years old), showed that infectious diseases still account for more than half of the ten leading causes.

Not only do Filipinos die of preventable diseases, there are also ten mothers dying daily because of pregnancy and childbirth-related causes.  Nisperos said the fact that five out of ten Filipinos die without receiving medical attention shows that the government is criminally negligent.  

Government policies

Rather than focusing on better public health care, the Arroyo administration has pushed for the privatization of health care and medical tourism, said Nisperos.

Last year, the government drew up three projects namely, the FOURmula One for Health, Medical Tourism and the Philippine Center for Specialized Health Care (PCSHC).

FOURmula ONE for Health is designed to implement “critical health interventions in a single package, backed by effective management infrastructure and financing arrangements” for the medium term covering 2005-2010. Medical Tourism encourages foreigners to visit the country for their medical and leisure needs. PCSHC is the integration of four hospitals classified as government-owned and -controlled corporations (GOCCs) and a government hospital based in Quezon City. The state hospitals are 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, these hospitals are classified as government-owned and -controlled corporations (GOCCs).

But Nisperos said it is not the poor Filipinos who would benefit from these programs.

He said that these government programs were designed to raise revenues, thereby effectively privatizing the already inaccessible health services.  He added that with medical tourism, paying patients, most especially foreigners, would be prioritized to earn more revenues.

The planned integration of four government hospitals is already being implemented despite the absence of a law allowing it. In previous articles, Bulatlat learned that an Integration Office has been set up at the NKTI. The office is reportedly using a letterhead bearing the PCSHC name.

Aside from its questionable creation, health workers are also against the allocation of P1million ($20, 408) from each of the four hospitals for the operations of the Integration Office.

Measly and misappropriated budget

The World Health Organization (WHO) came up with a standard prescribing that five percent of the gross national product (GNP) of a country should be allocated to health.  But the Philippines allocates way below this standard.   

In 2004, only 0.33 percent of GNP or P10.4 billion ($212,244,897) was allocated to health services; 0.21 percent or P10.3 B ($210,204,081) in 2005 and 0.35 percent of the projected GNP or P10.575 B ($215,816,326) in 2006.

With the reenacted budget of 2006, HEAD computed that a miserable P0.33 ($0.006) per Filipino per day would be spent by the government for health this year.

Worse, HEAD said, the insufficient government budget was also misappropriated.

The government allocates about P1.25 B ($25,510,204) annually for confidential and Intelligence expenses. Nisperos also said that the budget of the two hospitals of the Armed Forces of the Philippines amounting to P1.348 B ($27,510,204) was almost half of the total budget for 11 government hospitals in Metro Manila amounting to P2.483 B ($50,673,460).

Moreover, only P2 million ($40,816) has been allocated to subsidize the treatment of indigent patients in specialty hospitals. This is grossly inadequate considering that the average hospital bill is three times the average monthly income.

Also, only P 675.434 million ($13,367,784) was allocated for Disease Prevention and Control, of which only P 154 million ($3,142,857) was allocated for tuberculosis (TB) prevention and control.

TB is known as a sensitive index of a nation’s poverty. In 2003, the World Health Organization (WHO) named the Philippines as having the highest rate of TB occurrence in the Western Pacific with 36 percent of 82 million Filipinos infected. The same report says 75 Filipinos die of TB daily while 100,000 contract the disease yearly.

“People's control”

With this kind of government implementing “ineffective” health programs and policies, Nisperos said, the people should assert their rights to health services through collective action.

He called on the people to “rescind detrimental treaties and government policies,” among others, not only to make health services accessible, but also to establish “a more socially equitable society, where there is genuine freedom and democracy.” Bulatlat

Another Unhealthy Year for Health Workers  (Conclusion)

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