Our gaps in healthcare should be addressed now

OUR EXPERIENCE in the past year demonstrated how shortages of beds, equipment, and healthcare workers severely affect our response to large-scale medical crises. If anything, the COVID-19 pandemic has emphasized that medical facilities across the country urgently need to be upgraded.

In fact, this problem was highlighted, even before the pandemic. Throughout the decades, studies have shown that six out of every ten Filipinos will die without ever consulting a medical professional, due to the prohibitive cost of healthcare in the country and the lack of access to facilities, especially in the countryside.  

This need for an expanded, upgraded, and a more accessible medical network prompted us — as the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance — to augment funding for many hospitals including the Philippine Children’s Medical Center (PCMC), which we discussed in a previous column; the East Avenue Medical Center (EAMC); and the Philippine General Hospital (PGH).

Initially, in the Executive’s proposal for 2020, PCMC and EAMC funding were at P1.042 billion and P1.74 billion respectively while PGH funding, under the University of the Philippines Hospital Services Program, would amount to P6.024 billion, Through the intervention of the Senate, what was approved in the 2021 General Appropriations Act amounted to P1.933 billion, P2.17 billion and P6.872 billion respectively.   

We discussed the fund augmentations made for PCMC in a previous column.  Then for EAMC, we added P80 million for the construction of a radiation center, because the equipment for cancer treatment requires separate facilities. Then up to P15 million was reserved for a Molecular Diagnostic Laboratory, which will allow for reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) tests for COVID-19. Meanwhile, P36 million was set aside to buy twenty dialysis machines, while up to P360 million will be allotted for maintenance and other operating expenses for the EAMC. And then another P252 million went up for the purchase of various equipment.

Then for PGH, we pushed for an augmentation worth P2.331 billion. Of this amount, up to P1.54 billion will be for providing free medical services to mostly indigent patients in the coming year. Meanwhile, an estimated P600 million will be used to build a multi-specialty facility that will have departments for renal care, psychology, advanced laboratory services, and others. PGH will also be able to start construction on a microbial bank that will further support research and development activities.

We augmented the funds of EAMC and PGH in part because these facilities were at ground zero of the COVID-19 pandemic — which is the National Capital Region. But what if the next medical crisis happens in another part of the country? Are we prepared? 

This is one reason why I introduced the Satellite Specialty Hospitals Act of 2020 (SB 1873), which seeks to establish “annex” facilities for the various specialty hospitals, such as the National Kidney Institute, the Philippine Heart Center, Lung Center of the Philippines, and the Philippine Children’s Medical Center.  By setting up satellite specialty hospitals in every region, we also beef up our healthcare system and capacitate the other provinces to deal with COVID-19.   

The past year has been a taste of how serious medical disasters could potentially be in the future. We must strengthen our country’s health system now to address the challenges that will surely present themselves in the years to come.

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Sen. Sonny Angara has been in public service for 16 years—nine years as Representative of the Lone District of Aurora, and seven as Senator. He has authored and sponsored more than 200 laws. He is currently serving his second term in the Senate. E-mail: sensonnyangara@yahoo.com| Facebook, Twitter & Instagram: @sonnyangara/PN