The need to pool medical support

BENCHWARMER

Ramon Dacawi 

BAGUIO CITY -- Like previous columns on the issue, this is a howling in the wilderness. It gives credence to the observation that nobody reads columns except the writers themselves.

1.Time and again, we suggested, through articles and letters pleading to members of Congress and the Senate of the Philippines to pool part of their annual medical funds so that sick people would no longer have to undergo the sometimes tedious and slow process of applying for financial support to enable them pay their dialysis or other medical bills.

Under the present set-up, one needing medical attention or dialysis has to personally write a congressman or senator, attaching in his request his/her social case study report, medical certificate, certificate of indigency and other papers before the legislator’s office can decide how much should be extended to him/her.

These papers are required again when the patient applies anew for support to sustain, say, his or her dialysis which, everyone knows, has to be repeatedly done twice or four times a week for a life-time;

 It would do well for our senators and congressmen to pool part of their medical support into a common fund from which would be drawn payments for dialysis and other health services, thereby saving he patient the cumbersome procedure of having to produce supporting documents each he/she needs fund support.

Under the present set-up, it is up to the congressman or senator how much he should allocate to a patient, the amount often dictated by the solon’s personally knowing the one seeking assistance.

2. What’s preventing the Department of Health from establishing dialysis centers in all provincial and city hospitals in the country to effectively address the growing number of dialysis patients?

As already seen in dialysis centers established, the government needs no funding to open these vital centers that prolong life. All the provincial hospital has to do is to provide the space for their dialysis center. The dialysis machines shall be installed by the winning bidder and hire and pay the personnel to man it.

This is the case at the Baguio General Hospital and Medical Center where Presenius, a private company, won the bid and installed the machines without expense on the part of the hospital or the Department of Health.

The problem is that more and more dialysis patients are coming in, yet the Department of Health is slow in responding to this life-saving need for more centers. As a result, the BGHMC dialysis center is over-crowded, with many walk-in patients coming in from other parts of Luzon as their own cities and towns do not have facilities or have centers which are privately owned and managed, charging exorbitant fees.

Only last week, two vans filled with patients from the BGHMC traveled to Metro-Manila where they submitted to various offices requests for fund assistance for their dialysis. Now, the patients have to wait, praying that their application for support would be approved. If not, then they have to think deep and seek help for their next life-saving sessions.

This continuing mental torture over where to get support for one’s life-time dialysis was reason enough for the United States, Great Britain and Canada to make dialysis a free medical service, it being a life-saving procedure. (e-mail:mondaxbench@yahoo.com for comments)