AN OFFICIAL from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) believes that the primary healthcare goal of the Philippine Department of Health (DOH) to build 28 national ambulatory and urgent care facilities for 28 million poorest Filipinos by 2028 is very much achievable.
USAID Assistant Administrator for Global Health Dr. Atul Gawande said this is a realistic timeline of Health Secretary Ted Herbosa.
“Financial plans are in development to begin to get to that place. There’s more that can be done; the strengthening of the rural health units is going to be critical,” he told reporters.
For Gawande, many approaches and technical solutions are available to make medicines and hospitalization costs cheaper.
“The challenge of the cost of tests, medicines, etc. are significant. We’ve worked and demonstrated, for example, in TB (tuberculosis) that we’re able to lower the cost of medications and diagnostic testing,” he shared.
“…Work with different components like PhilHealth on how they’re paid for,” he suggested.
The official also underscored the need to address the shortage of nurses in the Philippines.
“The process of making it attractive to continue to stay here is about building strong centers, where people can feel rewarded. Serve their communities, and feel that they have the supplies,” Gawande said.
He continued, “Yes, pay makes a difference. But mostly people in the health profession want to feel that they are effective at their job, and can save lives and can make a difference in their communities.”
LIFE EXPECTANCY
Primary healthcare plays an important role in Gawande’s goal to increase life expectancy in the country.
“The Philippines is well on its way to being upper middle income country, but the results of health in the country are not that of an upper middle income country. Life expectancy here is a decade shorter than it should be, only around 70 years of life. Most of the risk is that children and young people are dying in numbers that are completely avoidable,” he said.
The health expert pointed out that missed immunizations, lack of family planning, and mental health needs are also among the factors that affect the country’s healthcare system.
Gawande was part of US President Joe Biden’s transition advisory council for COVID-19.
He called the Philippines “one of our most important partners – and has been for decades – in our work to advance health and stop disease from spreading”.
He said he also worked with Herbosa, both being surgeons, in contributing to the safe surgery checklist trial of the World Health Organization, wherein a two-minute checklist for conducting safer surgery was tested in the Philippine General Hospital in Manila and in other hospitals worldwide, which reduced the mortality rate by 47 percent. (ABS-CBN News)
