In pandemic, hospitals’ 2021 budget cut ₧2B
SENATOR Risa Hontiveros on Thursday flagged a whopping P2-billion reduction in the 2021 budget of the Department of Health (DOH) for public hospitals, aghast that this cut happens even while the country copes with the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Palace action was done, “in the face of historic unemployment and hunger, when we are supposed to provide safety nets for people, and yet here we are deepening their misery,” she said partly in Filipino.
Hontiveros said slashing P2.04 billion from the DOH 2021 budget for the operations of accredited public hospitals is ironic, she noted. The allocation is “crucial for government hospitals to cover the costs of regular operations including utilities, medicine, diagnostic procedures, IV fluids and other expenses essential to patient care,” she added.
This would mean higher out- ofpocket expenses for people seeking medical treatment, many of whom have also been impacted economically with jobs lost and businesses shuttered or in the red from the lockdowns. Hontiveros said, “this is grossly anti- poor and anti- people.” Reducing the budget for maintenance and other operating expenses ( MOOE) of state-run hospitals also means “the income of 33 national and regional government hospitals would be diverted to compensate for this, when it could have gone to procuring more beds and new equipment that we are in dire need of,” Hontiveros added.
The country’s 3.31-percent average critical case rate translated to around 588 people hospitalized every week. And yet, she noted, the top three hospitals that suffered the biggest cuts were major Covid referral centers in cities with the highest number of cases in their regions.
For instance, Quirino Memorial Medical Center (QMMC) in Quezon City, which has “the highest number of cases in the whole Philippines,” is currently at “warning level” status at 67.2- percent bed occupancy, Hontiveros pointed out. Despite this, it was refused P305.48 million for optimal operations.
Hontiveros also cited Southern Philippines Medical Center in Davao, which incurred a P699.2- million budget cut, even as it is currently at full capacity for Covid-19 patients, and is filled at 97- percent general ward occupancy. Corazon Locsin Montelibano Memorial Hospital was “also denied P242.19 million, despite being a major Covid-19 testing center in Bacolod City.”
Most of these hospitals, the senator said, “are in emerging, if not current, hotspot areas. Shouldn’t common sense tell us that when the threat is rising, we provide reinforcement? We don’t know when this pandemic will end, so our hospitals have to be ever-ready to deal with the influx of patients.”
In what may well be the most serious health emergency in decades, Hontiveros said, “We have no choice but to give these hospitals what they need. The consequences could prove fatal. Many might die because they were refused care when they needed it the most. This can be prevented if we channel funds wisely.”
Alongside reduced hospital operation funds, the budget for Prevention and Control of Communicable and Non-communicable Diseases was also refused a “massive” P10 billion, Hontiveros said, adding: “we’ve crippled funding for prevention, and we are further crippling the budget for treatment.”
Health officials concerned cannot treat this as “business as usual,” she said. “Our hospitals need to be extremely fortified to deal with the rising number of cases.”
Meanwhile, she said, “We also need to take into account non- Covid patients who need attention,” she said. “Other diseases didn’t disappear with Covid-19 so we should boost the budget in this major battle.”
The senator earlier pressed for an additional P48.7 billion in the DOH’S total budget to prepare the country to transition to the new normal in 2021, stressing that “our current budget pretends that we aren’t in the biggest health crisis of our lifetimes. Let’s show that we care for Filipinos by ensuring that the taxes we pay go straight to our health and well-being.”