Why not a government hospital?’

Almost three weeks ago, my beloved mother Marita suffered a “minor” heart attack. From day one I found myself dealing with situations, questions and experiences that changed a lot of how I see life.

The first lesson I learned is it would be safer and cheaper to follow doctors’ recommendations. We all want to avoid the P15,000 to P50,000 tests or being confined for executive check-ups. For the stubborn few who survive such a bad decision, the injury to the body and to your wallet will always be far more than you bargained for.

Two months ago, my doctor-friend Mike Sarte suggested that I undergo a non-invasive scan to check out my heart and related plumbing. I avoided it because of the P25,000 bill.

Yes, I’m stupid !!!, just like many other people who don’t really realize that it’s our life we are talking about and not the contents of our wallet. So here I am at the Philippine Heart Center writing a column while waiting in line to see a heart specialist!

I don’t know if we are merely helpless optimists or people who live in absolute denial, but just the fact that doctors and people use the term “minor” for a heart attack makes me wonder. Using “minor” to qualify or grade the seriousness of a “cardiac episode” is like trying to put chocolate icing on half-cooked ampalaya or bitter melon.

People who have had false attacks or survived a real heart attack will tell you that the only real thing you deal with is Fear and Pain. And in terms of a “major” heart attack there are only two categories: dead or alive.

If you want people to pay attention and to realize the seriousness of the situation, don’t ever use the term “minor cardiac episode” because everybody thinks its “heart burn”. The minute I shifted to “heart attack”, I certainly got everybody’s attention.

Once people started asking about Mom’s condition, the next issue became her place of confinement. When I told people that she was at the National Kidney Institute, everybody asked: “why not the Heart Center?”

I guess everybody has fallen into the mental trap of “specialization”. What most people don’t know is that many “specialist” government hospitals have become the preferred alternative to private hospitals especially among government employees and retirees just like my Mom.

The pleasant surprise is the fact that many “specialist” hospitals such as the National Kidney Institute provides a high level of professional expertise and much of the same equipment you find in private hospitals, without having to sell your house and lot to pay the final bill.

From the time we went through the processing at the emergency room, the eight days in the Intensive Care Unit and her five days in a private room, we never felt the stereotypical environment of what government hospitals have been portrayed to be.

The doctors and nurses were all young, attentive and dedicated to their work. The doctors may have been serving at a government facility but almost all of them also held clinics or were consultants in the top hospitals in Metro Manila.

If some of the government hospitals appear not to be bright or well lighted or well maintained, blame it on the policy that government hospitals are required to remit their earnings to the national government.

So instead of having funds at their immediate disposal and reinvesting their earnings on the correct maintenance, they have to operate on projected expenses and budgets that are usually reduced and diminished by cuts made by politicians and non-revenue patients. Then when you have outbreaks of AH1N1, sore eyes, Dengue that are not covered by the budget, they break the piggy bank.

Contrary to the false accusations and stereo-type image that public health practitioners are inferior or incompetent, I have seen and experienced enough in many years to say that our public health managers, doctors and workers are competent and deserving of our support.

If some of our government hospitals and staff appear bad or squalid, please check first if they are actually receiving the necessary funding relative to the operational burden placed upon them. Just look at the Heart Center. When it comes to heart problems, everybody always has the Heart Center as top of mind. But if you are swamped with cases, sooner or later, something suffers and usually they give up “looks” and “creature comforts” and spend their money for medical operations.

The Philippine General Hospital and other facilities have the same problems. And so don’t be surprised if they have problems paying their water and electricity bills.

Perhaps Senator Dick Gordon and Senator Loren Legarda could make a bigger impact if they worked on letting hospitals retain their earnings so they can improve, expand and even build up more “government hospitals”.

There is now a call to address the various aspects of health care and not just the prices of medicines. Why not focus on preventive health care and a major development program to build health care facilities or hospitals that are based on a successful model such as the Ospital ng Makati or the National Kidney Institute.

Private hospitals like private schools are simply for the rich. But what about the rest of the Filipinos? Should our economic class and capacity to pay be the standard for the quality of medical care we get?

Do something or say something about it now, because tomorrow the patient might be your mother, or you! –Cito Beltran (The Philippine Star)