I highly support the notion of providing free hospitalizations for the really indigent people, but here are some interesting points for discussion:
1) If ever the government will pay for the hospitalization of the poor, how are they going to choose whom to provide the free services? Should they just accept everyone who claims, as said in this article, those who will come and say "I am poor, if I don't have a disease, then look for one that I might have."? I seriously don't think that is the best way to give free services. Yes, if the government could provide these necessary services to its poor people for free, then by all means, it should be done. But critical PRIORITIZATION of patients should be in place. I mean, the number of those who actually don't need this service greatly outnumbers those who really need them.
2) How much are we willing to spend for the "poor"? Are the tax-paying citizens willing to pay for the likes of those chronic alcoholics and chronic illegal-drug users? Should we impose a "selection criteria" for
Yes, the SIN-TAX and Philhealth money are in excess right now. But directing funds from these "reserved billions" to other public hospitals is always a "rocky road" to take, Spell POLITICS. Enough said.
3) Believe me, 10-30 beds will never be enough. Even in PGH with ~1,500 bed capacity (perhaps more, if we include the "bed-sharing" in OBGYN and the stretcher- and wheelchair-bound patients in DEM) wherein the 1000+ beds are for the Charity patients (i.e. most expenses are paid by the government), we still end up getting "fully-booked". And yes, as hard as it may be at times, we end up telling our patients to "please come another day when there will be free beds in the wards."
BUT! Looking at this proposition in a positive way, if we spread the "free beds" to all the hospitals in the country by making it mandatory, big government hospitals like PGH will have lesser patient loads coming from other places (especially those from Cavite).These freed beds can now accommodate other patients who are in greater need of the hospital's services. People for far provinces need not travel to hospitals like PGH just to get what they deserve if there are free beds for them in a nearer hospital. Less expenses for them, less incidence of "dying patients" along the way.
4) Let's face it. The current health system in this country s*cks. More often than not, "health" has now become a "paid service", a means of getting more money than providing services to the people. It's more of a privilege than a right. A commodity rather than one's own duty. An asset to benefit once own than others. Even the way most medical schools teach right now is towards "getting higher specializations, getting higher pays". In short, if free beds are to be mandated in all hospitals, expect a lot of institutions raising their opposition to this matter.
Meh. Forgive this episode of me being "curious" for a while. I'm just not feeling well, that's why.
(would expect some people to reply and contribute to this discussion somehow hehe)
Salaam!
#DU30 #Duterte2016
Read the original article here:
http://www.rappler.com/nation/politics/elections/2016/123660-duterte-cayetano-facility-poor-hospitals
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