Being an employee of a major government institution, I have always tried to remain optimistic regarding what the government does for its people. But what can one feel except anger when those supposedly entrusted with the public’s wellbeing and resources act with indifference while the life of a loved one is on the line?
On the night of Jan. 17, 2014, my sister Nicolasita Papelleras, a breast cancer patient, complained she had great difficulty breathing. Fearing the worst, I immediately contacted the Siargao Emergency Hospital in Dapa, Surigao Del Norte, to request an ambulance for her. The request was denied—as the hospital had neither an ambulance nor a driver on station.
It was the first of what would be a series of problems I would have with their kind of service.
When the local Rural Health Center was able to provide my sister with one, we took her straight to the hospital where she was admitted to the emergency room.
Already feeble with hypertension, I went home to rest. To my shock, upon my return, they had transferred my sister to the Medicare ward. Seeing the ward’s deplorable condition upon my arrival on Jan. 18, I approached the nurse’s station, asking if my sister could be transferred to a private ward. The nurses’ answer was utterly unbelievable: “We have no available private rooms, because they are reserved for (arriving) visitors.” I was hysterical with disbelief at such a reason, but the nurses responded to my complaints by curtly telling me to take it up with their chief—a doctor who was nowhere to be found!
At 11 o’clock that night, a cousin of mine reported to me that my sister had already been cut off from the “oxygen” in the ward. I frantically made a request for oxygen from the hospital’s emergency room, which they again denied. My frustration then turned to disgust when I found out that the coma-stricken mother of the former secretary of a local mayor who was in the very same room had ample oxygen supply—the one they didn’t supposedly have.
On Jan. 19, we decided to transport my sister to Surigao City. We requested the hospital for a portable oxygen supply; the hospital, until the very end, refused to provide us with one. When I arrived home, I was surprised to see hospital staff waiting—as it turned out—to collect payment for the hospital fees. If only the hospital’s health service providers performed their medical duties with the same urgency and tenacity!
My experience at Siargao Emergency Hospital represents the very worst conditions a hapless citizen must endure under public medical care. With my sister’s life in the balance, we had to deal with lack of resources, nepotism and, verily, incompetence. My concerns were met with indifference, if not blatant scorn. I can only hope that my experience is not true in other public hospitals in the country; if it is, it tells a truly sorry and an alarming state of our nation’s healthcare system.
—CLEOFE CATURLA,
committee stenographer,
Senate of the Philippines,
caturla.senate@yahoo.com