By INA ALLECO R. SILVERIO
During the August 9 budget hearing of the DOH, Bayan Muna Rep. Teddy Casiño exposed the practice of the Philippine Children’s Medical Center (PCMC) of asking indigent patients to pawn personal items like mobile phones and watches in exchange for releasing patients.
By MARYA SALAMAT
Despite the promises of devolution, funding for health services is unable to keep up with local needs.
Sidebar: Not enough doctors, and nurses, in
Sidebar: Where do the sick go?
SECOND PART: LGUs try enterprise to cure shortage in health funding
By MARYA SALAMAT Bulatlat.com Maggie De Pano Fellow MANILA, Philippines – The local government units were obviously not ready for it—more residents flocking to barangay health stations, town clinics, and provincial hospitals. This was the result of the government’s Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps), which aims to help the poorest families improve the health, nutrition,…
By MARYA SALAMAT Bulatlat.com, Newsbreak-Maggie de Pano Fellow MANILA, Philippines – Under-funding is not the only reason for the decline in the quality and coverage of local health services. To begin with, some experts say, the devolution of health services started with an inefficient setup, where these services were splintered among different levels of local…
Special Report (Last of two parts) They put up common funds among towns or charge socialized fees in public hospitals By MARYA SALAMAT Bulatlat.com Maggie de Pano Fellow MANILA — When devolution proved to be too challenging in the earlier years, many public health workers and professionals started calling for the “re-nationalization” of their services.…
By ANNE MARXZE D. UMIL Bulatlat.com The Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) or popularly known as conditional cash transfer (CCT) was conceived to achieve the United Nation’s Millennium Development Goals (MDG). The MDGs targeted eight international development goals to achieve by 2015, including eradicating extreme poverty and hunger, achieve universal primary education, promote gender equality…
By ANNE MARXZE D. UMIL
“The government should have given us permanent jobs instead of this (conditional cash transfer). Money is not permanent, we lose it in a day, unlike when we have a permanent job, we would somehow have permanent resources to spend for our needs,” – Angie Lorenzo, beneficiary
By MARYA SALAMAT
“We are calling on the Aquino government to increase the budget of all public hospitals, not just of the Philippine Heart Center. If high costs of medical treatment even in government hospitals become prevalent, more patients will die without being seen or treated by doctors,” said Bonifacio Carmona Jr., PHC Employees Association Congress speaker and AHW-NCR Representative.
By bulatlat.com BAGUIO CITY — “Threats continue. Nothing has changed despite Pnoy’s promise of a ‘matuwid na daan’! We condemn this continuing assault on our staff and our institution especially inspite of our continuing resolve to render services.” This is what Ms. Romella (Mia) Liquigan-Rasalan, Community Health Education, Services and Training (CHESTCORE) Executive Director exclaimed…
By MARYA SALAMAT
“You go to a public hospital emergency room to have your wound cleaned, you have to first buy some cotton, wound antiseptic, and dressings, before you can be treated,” said Joel Bitanga, 40, an X-ray technician in San Lazaro Hospital.
Sidebar: Health workers blame Aquino’s PPPs for further crippling the Philippine Orthopedic Center