Right to healthcare sacrificed on altar of profit

We, the Religious Discernment Group (RDG) and the Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation of the Missionary Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (JPIC-ICM), join all people of goodwill in opposing the privatization of the Philippine Orthopedic Center (POC) and other government-owned hospitals.

The Philippine Constitution clearly states: “The state shall protect and promote the health of the people and instill health consciousness among them” (Article II, Section 5). This is but an expression of the moral responsibility of the state to care for, particularly, the poorest in society. Psalm 72:4 is a prayer for the ruler: “May he defend the cause of the poor people, give deliverance to the needy, and crush the oppressor.”

The POC is the only national tertiary hospital specializing in bone and trauma cases. It currently serves, on average, 450-500 patients a day, 80-90 percent of whom are indigent and get free services. In the POC, no one is denied service because he/she does not have the capacity to pay. But instead of increasing the budget so that the hospital can maintain and improve its facilities and services, the present administration has cut its budget further.

Prior to the disaster, the hospital budget allotment was already inadequate to provide treatment for its 700 or so patients. Records show that there are about 80 typhoon (“Yolanda”) survivor-patients who have been moved or are seeking treatment at the hospital. But until now no additional funds have been allotted by the government for these patients.

And while the whole country and the world were focused on assisting and helping out the survivors of Yolanda, the National Economic and Development Authority Board, chaired by President Aquino, approved last Nov. 21 the Department of Health’s “modernization” plan for the POC. The modernization of government-owned hospitals is meant to generate profits for private companies. This plan will therefore clearly result in the denial of the right of the poor to decent healthcare. Through modernization, government in effect is abandoning its social responsibility to the people.

The provision of public health is an essential government responsibility. With President Aquino boasting of the country’s GNP growth, he can tap “some” of this growth to modernize and improve public health facilities. Health services should not be treated as a commodity for profit.

The fate of  the 1,000 health workers in the POC is uncertain. They have no guarantee of retaining their jobs in the new center for profit, with the private owner given the right to “have freedom to select employees” and “not under obligation to recognize the existing union.” It is these employees and this union which daily so faithfully serve the poor who come to the POC.

We should not allow the rights of the poor people for adequate healthcare to be sacrificed on the altar of profit.

—SR. PATRICIA FOX, NDS, convenor,

Religious Discernment Group, RDG;

SR. LYDIA LASCANO, ICM,

coordinator, JPIC-ICM;

REV. WILFREDO DULAY, MJ, convenor, Religious Discernment Group;

FR. RUDY ABAO, MSC,

National Clergy Discernment Group