TO RESPOND swiftly to future health crises like the COVID-19 pandemic, the Department of Health (DOH) should invest more in health facilities and primary care.
One of the country’s major challenges at the outset of the pandemic is the lack of health infrastructure. We had to scale up our testing process fast and, eventually, we had to put up more beds to make sure that we cater to more inpatient cases. It was really an infrastructure problem. If we look at other countries, some of them were able to respond quickly because they have previously invested in infrastructures when they experienced a similar crisis.
DOH should also push for stronger primary care. If we had been supported by stronger primary care, our households and individuals would have had definitive linkages to primary care providers. It would have been easier to cascade important health information, roll out vaccines, keep tabs of people for contact tracing, and identify Filipinos who need healthcare at the height of the pandemic.
And yes, disease surveillance has long been a problem of the health sector. If only we had a strong information system, then perhaps we didn’t have to put up new systems for contact tracing which are needed for case detection and vaccination certification. Things could have been streamlined right from the very beginning.
Aside from improving its information systems, DOH should also institutionalize reforms in procurement and logistics management by shifting toward automated logistics management and pooled procurement to help local government units acquire the resources they need. A pooled procurement facility can help address the difficulty in getting medical supplies and reagents needed for testing, which also improves healthcare affordability.
And before we forget, there is a need for government agencies to integrate minimum public health standards as part of healthy setting initiatives. The COVID-19 pandemic showed how health affects other sectors and how other sectors also affect it. Thus, there is a need to institutionalize stronger social protection and safety nets so that people will not fear going to work and for them to take care of themselves in facing extraordinary circumstances like this.
The pandemic has highlighted the interconnectedness of the health sector with other sectors. We want to be able to anticipate these problems early on and establish solutions before they even start manifesting.
