Philippine medical profession in crisis
Philippine medical profession in crisis
Updated 01:04am (Mla time) Oct 15, 2004
By Neal Cruz
Inquirer News Service
Editor's Note: Published on page A14 of the October 15, 2004 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer
IN THE OLD days, churches were the sanctuary of people trying to escape arrest by the men of feudal lords. Now hospitals have replaced churches as the refuge of people trying to escape the long arm of the law. Whether the person is trying to stay out of prison, like convicted rapist Romeo Jalosjos, or a general trying to dodge questions regarding his wealth, like Major General Carlos F. Garcia, they pretend to be so sick they need to be confined in a hospital. And law enforcement authorities are often only too willing to accept the word of their doctors who are, for their part, only too willing to lend the weight of their reputations to convince the authorities that their patients indeed need to stay in the hospital.
And so, if Mohammed cannot go to the mountain, the mountain will go to him. Members of Congress are going to the Santo Tomas University Hospital to question Garcia instead of forcing him to go to them. Authorities respect the expert opinion of physicians so much that many scoundrels stay out of jail for long periods on the say-so of their doctors.
How dangerous is sleep apnea to the life of Garcia if he goes to Congress to answer questions? Sleep apnea is a condition where the patient sometimes stops breathing while asleep. But the general is not going to sleep in Congress. On the contrary, he would have to stay wide-awake and on his toes as the legislators pepper him with questions.
On second thought, his doctor also said the general has arrythmia, an irregular heartbeat which can trigger a heart attack when he is under stress. But this can easily be verified with an electrocardiogram that can be done in minutes by any cardiologist. So it wouldn't be difficult to determine whether Garcia is really in a life-threatening situation or just malingering.
In view of the penchant of some scoundrels to use hospitals as a refuge, Congress and the Philippine Medical Association should formulate rules to regulate this practice.
* * *
Speaking of doctors, members of the Philippine College of Physicians (PCP) signed last Tuesday a covenant pledging (1) "to practice and be based in the Philippines for the next three years" and (2) "to spend a portion of their time for charity work... at least one day in a month for charity, or to give free consultations for their poor patients." The PCP has 6,000 doctor-members and 11 chapters nationwide, and is the umbrella organization of 13 component and affiliate societies.
The PCP leadership was prompted to ask its members to sign the covenant because of the exodus of doctors because of better opportunities abroad. In fact, several hospitals in Mindanao and the province of Negros Oriental face closure due to lack of doctors and nurses.
Not only that, full-fledged doctors are going back to school to become nurses because there is a big demand for nurses abroad. A PCP flyer said that in 2002, 2,000 doctors enrolled to become nurses and in 2003, this increased to 3,000. This year, an estimated 4,000 doctors will shift to nursing. Medicine has now ironically become a pre-nursing course.
The reason for all these? The low morale and low income here of doctors, especially the younger ones. Ironically, it is the young doctors who know the latest cures and techniques that they learned abroad. These doctors leave their flourishing practices in hospitals abroad to come home and serve their countrymen, only to be disappointed.
Sad to say, the media contribute to the poor image of the medical profession and therefore to the low morale and exodus of doctors. For it sometimes unfairly portray doctors as greedy and incompetent. How often do we see patients denouncing in the media doctors and hospitals for making them wait, giving them the runaround, not giving them prompt medical attention, not realizing that the overworked doctors are attending to many other patients and giving the more seriously sick ones priority?
Add to this the Medical Malpractice Bill and the Patients' Rights Bill now pending in Congress, which will make medical practice here more hazardous and expensive for doctors. Physicians will have to buy malpractice insurance to protect themselves from ambulance chasers. If they have to do that, doctors say, they might as well practice in the United States. Doctors there all have malpractice insurance but at least they earn more than the doctors here. Add to that the fact that Filipinos are a litigious lot and that we have an excess of lawyers willing to chase ambulances. And that we have legislators who are all too ready to espouse populist but wrong causes because it would win them votes.
The truth is that all hospitals, big and small, have charity wards that attend to the poor and that many doctors give free services to poor patients, go on medical missions in the provinces and even look for funds and dig into their own pockets to save patients' lives. This happens often in many hospitals, but they hardly get reported by media. What gets reported are often the non-paying relatives of patients complaining because they were not given attention by the overworked doctors fast enough.
Doctors risk their lives every day caring for high-risk patients, such as those with drug-resistant tuberculosis, AIDS, hepatitis, etc. Sometime ago, the young doctor-daughter of cartoonist Larry Alcala was bitten by a patient who had the virulent fulminant hepatitis. She got infected and almost died, hovering between life and death for weeks at the intensive care unit of the Makati Medical Center.
Yet many doctors will continue caring for their countrymen in times of crises and calamities and, as the PCP covenant shows, they will stick it out in the Philippines in good times and bad.
Updated 01:04am (Mla time) Oct 15, 2004
By Neal Cruz
Inquirer News Service
Editor's Note: Published on page A14 of the October 15, 2004 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer
IN THE OLD days, churches were the sanctuary of people trying to escape arrest by the men of feudal lords. Now hospitals have replaced churches as the refuge of people trying to escape the long arm of the law. Whether the person is trying to stay out of prison, like convicted rapist Romeo Jalosjos, or a general trying to dodge questions regarding his wealth, like Major General Carlos F. Garcia, they pretend to be so sick they need to be confined in a hospital. And law enforcement authorities are often only too willing to accept the word of their doctors who are, for their part, only too willing to lend the weight of their reputations to convince the authorities that their patients indeed need to stay in the hospital.
And so, if Mohammed cannot go to the mountain, the mountain will go to him. Members of Congress are going to the Santo Tomas University Hospital to question Garcia instead of forcing him to go to them. Authorities respect the expert opinion of physicians so much that many scoundrels stay out of jail for long periods on the say-so of their doctors.
How dangerous is sleep apnea to the life of Garcia if he goes to Congress to answer questions? Sleep apnea is a condition where the patient sometimes stops breathing while asleep. But the general is not going to sleep in Congress. On the contrary, he would have to stay wide-awake and on his toes as the legislators pepper him with questions.
On second thought, his doctor also said the general has arrythmia, an irregular heartbeat which can trigger a heart attack when he is under stress. But this can easily be verified with an electrocardiogram that can be done in minutes by any cardiologist. So it wouldn't be difficult to determine whether Garcia is really in a life-threatening situation or just malingering.
In view of the penchant of some scoundrels to use hospitals as a refuge, Congress and the Philippine Medical Association should formulate rules to regulate this practice.
* * *
Speaking of doctors, members of the Philippine College of Physicians (PCP) signed last Tuesday a covenant pledging (1) "to practice and be based in the Philippines for the next three years" and (2) "to spend a portion of their time for charity work... at least one day in a month for charity, or to give free consultations for their poor patients." The PCP has 6,000 doctor-members and 11 chapters nationwide, and is the umbrella organization of 13 component and affiliate societies.
The PCP leadership was prompted to ask its members to sign the covenant because of the exodus of doctors because of better opportunities abroad. In fact, several hospitals in Mindanao and the province of Negros Oriental face closure due to lack of doctors and nurses.
Not only that, full-fledged doctors are going back to school to become nurses because there is a big demand for nurses abroad. A PCP flyer said that in 2002, 2,000 doctors enrolled to become nurses and in 2003, this increased to 3,000. This year, an estimated 4,000 doctors will shift to nursing. Medicine has now ironically become a pre-nursing course.
The reason for all these? The low morale and low income here of doctors, especially the younger ones. Ironically, it is the young doctors who know the latest cures and techniques that they learned abroad. These doctors leave their flourishing practices in hospitals abroad to come home and serve their countrymen, only to be disappointed.
Sad to say, the media contribute to the poor image of the medical profession and therefore to the low morale and exodus of doctors. For it sometimes unfairly portray doctors as greedy and incompetent. How often do we see patients denouncing in the media doctors and hospitals for making them wait, giving them the runaround, not giving them prompt medical attention, not realizing that the overworked doctors are attending to many other patients and giving the more seriously sick ones priority?
Add to this the Medical Malpractice Bill and the Patients' Rights Bill now pending in Congress, which will make medical practice here more hazardous and expensive for doctors. Physicians will have to buy malpractice insurance to protect themselves from ambulance chasers. If they have to do that, doctors say, they might as well practice in the United States. Doctors there all have malpractice insurance but at least they earn more than the doctors here. Add to that the fact that Filipinos are a litigious lot and that we have an excess of lawyers willing to chase ambulances. And that we have legislators who are all too ready to espouse populist but wrong causes because it would win them votes.
The truth is that all hospitals, big and small, have charity wards that attend to the poor and that many doctors give free services to poor patients, go on medical missions in the provinces and even look for funds and dig into their own pockets to save patients' lives. This happens often in many hospitals, but they hardly get reported by media. What gets reported are often the non-paying relatives of patients complaining because they were not given attention by the overworked doctors fast enough.
Doctors risk their lives every day caring for high-risk patients, such as those with drug-resistant tuberculosis, AIDS, hepatitis, etc. Sometime ago, the young doctor-daughter of cartoonist Larry Alcala was bitten by a patient who had the virulent fulminant hepatitis. She got infected and almost died, hovering between life and death for weeks at the intensive care unit of the Makati Medical Center.
Yet many doctors will continue caring for their countrymen in times of crises and calamities and, as the PCP covenant shows, they will stick it out in the Philippines in good times and bad.
posted by Dante at 10:16 AM
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