PRESIDENT Ferdinand Marcos Jr. stressed the importance of shifting the government’s focus to primary healthcare to ensure the successful fight against health crises and sustain the effective delivery of essential health services.
He made the statement when Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of the World Health Organization, paid a courtesy call on him at the Study Room in Malacañan Palace on Tuesday.
Marcos, as quoted by Malacañang, said it is time to begin recalibrating the strategies by putting a premium on primary healthcare, considering the country’s progress in managing the pandemic very well.
But where do we start? Our public health system is weak, if not a total failure. The resurgence of preventable diseases such as polio and measles, among others, is just a reflection of this.
Perhaps we can start with our healthcare human resources, our health professionals – nurses doctors, medical technologists, physical therapists, and medical secretaries, etc. Hundreds, maybe thousands, work abroad because our public health system cannot pay them well. They spend years and years at nursing and medical schools and if ever they find employment, they get measly sums and with a working environment not so ideal.
Then there’s is the glaring offer of rich countries. The pay, compared to what one is getting here, is staggering. Thus the trajectory of our health services students while still in school is to work abroad. Developed countries need so many health workers because they have so many hospitals, they have upgraded their health programs, they pour in money for health, and health is the primary focus of their governments. And as an enticement, they pay much that no one can resist.
Private hospitals in the country do not pay well. But it is the government that must change the direction of our health program. With corruption and a lack of imagination in planning for our health programs, we can never hold our health workers to stay put. And poor Juan de la Cruz in the barrio will just die without even seeing a doctor or nurse.
The government must seek the right directions for healthcare. It has to start a no-nonsense program to make our health workers stay. But what a tragedy. Instead of our people enjoying the benefits of a humane health program, we are left with an anemic system that deprives us of our health workers.
