Lawyer talk

Unless the Integrated Bar of the Philippines and the Supreme Court steps in, chances are we will soon be hiring lawyers based on their ability to blabber instead of their skills at being a lawyer.

In like manner we might as well elect Senators on the basis of their interrogation skills as well as being lawyers for the prosecution.

We will also have to be careful about choosing a hospital because you’re never sure if they are an institution of healing or earning.

I don’t know if any of you have noticed these strange turn of events where so-called professionals and institutions represent a particular field or business but often conduct themselves in such a different nature or manner.

For instance, hospitals are supposed to be institutions of healing and medical attention. Somewhere along the way, they evolved and became institutions of learning for would be doctors and nurses.

Then they expanded their territories and incorporated F&B facilities by having their own cafeterias and flower shops. Then they decided to be lessors and started renting out space for coffee shops, banks and drugs stores etc.

The ultimate transition is that many hospitals are now “real estate companies” that sells “units” in their high-rise buildings to doctors who wish to be on the hospital’s list of accredited medical “consultants”.

In the old days, doctors were invited and provided with a private or common “clinic”, today it isn’t enough that you are a licensed medical practitioner, you are also required to be an “Investor”. At a going rate of P3 to P5 million plus per unit, hospitals are turning out to be a lot smarter than the Ayala, DMCI and SM Prime.

While that may be smart business sense, it spells disaster for health care in the Philippines.

No one has really noticed because in general we all pay a measly P500 consultancy visit to most doctors. But the real bills come when you need to pay P10,000 to P25,000 for an anesthesiologist, P20,000 to 100,000 to a surgeon etc. etc.

I used to wonder how physicians even in 2nd or 3rd class municipalities could dare to charge such excessive fees, but after learning how much money they spend to have a clinic in several hospitals, I guess it is fair to say that they too get opened up or sliced once in a while.

Unless you’re a loyalist like my friend Doctor Alex, chances are every good doctor has had to invest P3 to P5 million in at least two or three hospitals. That being the case, they are now investment managers as well as physicians!

From healing to learning to eating and now to earning, no wonder big business is getting into the hospital business. –Cito Beltran (The Philippine Star)