Policy think-tank warns of worsening health care in RP

The Center for Legislative Development (CLD), an organization that conducts research and engages in policy advocacy, urged the national government to make quality healthcare services in the country accessible, available, affordable and acceptable in a policy discussion.

The private think-tank has the following comment on the country’s current health care system, “Inequities in access to quality health care among Filipino patients are glaring.”

The CLD warned that failure to adopt effective policy measures on the part of the legislature and government agencies could further deteriorate Philippine health care.

In a recent policy study entitled “Equity Issues in Access to Quality Health Care” by the CLD, it is stipulated that the quality of public healthcare system has deteriorated in terms of technical quality, infrastructure, equipment and supplies despite the fact that Philippine hospitals scored well in the International Nosocomial Infection Control Consortium indicators of patient care and safety.

“While a few health care facilities in Metro Manila can boast of meeting world class standards on quality care, many others suffer from dire lack of equipment and staff,” the CLD announces, adding that such inequity reflects the imbalance in the country’s socio-economic development which favors the high-income and urban-based population.

The CLD also found out that some of the issues affecting healthcare delivery are mass migration of doctors and nurses, decline in health care spending, and fragmentation of the country’s health care delivery system.

To arrest the continued exodus of healthcare providers in search for a high-paying job abroad, the center, some bills that would offer additional benefits to health workers and doctors are pending in Congress.

A number of bills have been passed to encourage the effective delivery of quality health care in the rural areas, including legislative initiatives that seek to modernize the health delivery system.

According to the center, some legislative efforts to boost the quality of healthcare services in the country are the comprehensive national health facilities program and the re-formulation of a National Health Code.

“But already, the questions are being raised whether such policy moves could indeed broaden access to a predominantly privatized health case system or would only serve as another dose of mere palliatives with only limited effects,” the center’s report read.

Emmanuel Leyco, executive director of CLD, shares that the government needs to spread its resources equally to all regions to make healthcare delivery accessible and affordable even to the remote areas of the country. Leyco noted that Luzon and National Capital Region received the biggest budget allocation in health care in 2005, with 32 percent and 29 percent of the budget, respectively.

“The government is spending. But is the government spending enough?” comments Leyco, urging the government to allocate more budget for health care. –Froilan Vincent D. Bersamina, Special to The Times