After lifting EO7: Level up government’s role in public health

The Council for Health and Development (CHD) believes that the government should substantially address key concerns in the health system coinciding with the lifting of the pandemic-induced state of public health emergency (Executive Order No. 7) and its responsibility in making science-backed and pro-people public health interventions be realized to its fullest.Apart from low hospital bed utilization for COVID-19 and the increasing number of countries that have relaxed or lifted their pandemic-related health restrictions, the Marcos administration should assess the root causes of this failing health system and immediately address these.

By rescinding mask-wearing in public transportation and other settings, the standards for COVID-19 protection should include effective ventilation to be in place in public spaces and workplaces, and more affordable transportation options must likewise be made available for the masses. Jam-packed buses, jeepneys, and trains must be eased together with proper ventilation systems without burdening commuters, small drivers, and operators. The government should prioritize the workers and the poor who have no choice but to take public transportation and be in congested/crowded places.

CHD still recommends wearing masks in health-care facilities and provision of personal protective equipment for health workers, and PPEs must be free and available all the time for all health workers.

Persons with immunocompromised health must also be given close attention and their access to health facilities be ensured, especially for patients whose financial capacities dictate their access, or lack thereof, to health services and medicines. It has been CHD’s long-standing call to make essential drugs, treatments, and health services free in primary care facilities to public hospitals.

As the virus is continuously evolving, the public health emergency lift should still require the Department of Health (DOH) to diligently track, monitor, and report cases to avoid misleading the public, and make appropriate public health measures and contain any potential outbreaks. The DOH’s Epidemiology Bureau, up to the regional levels, needs to be strengthened.

With reference to the emergency use authorization for COVID-19 vaccines extension for another year, what is needed is for these to be included in the national immunization program and provided for free to every Filipino up to the farthest areas. Aside from vaccines, COVID-19 diagnostics and therapeutics should also be provided for free in public health facilities to unburden the people of the costs that this entails.

Many low-income patients and their relatives are complaining of expensive COVID-19 tests for some hospitals and service providers. Relative to our minimum wage, even with an insulting P40 wage increase, these tests are expensive and could be shouldered by the government in order to unburden an already catastrophic health spending of our poor patients.

Unpaid COVID-19 health emergency allowance for health workers reportedly amounting to P12.5 billion and pending since 2021 should be paid immediately and must not wait for another year to be completed. Filipino health workers worked without delay and hesitation when the pandemic hit and their efforts and sacrifices must be recognized in the same urgency by giving them what is due now.

Dignifying our health workers’ sacrifice is to give them living wage, benefits, and adequate health-worker-to-patient ratio now.

Lastly, as the deliberation for the national budget looms near, CHD emphasizes yet again the need for an increase in the health budget equivalent to at least 10 percent of the gross domestic product and the passage of House Bill No. 208 or the Free National Public Health System Act.Eleanor A. Jara, M.D.,executive director,

Council for Health and

Development

[email protected]