1,202 patients benefit from LCDE, COMMED med mission’s free services

By RANDY ANTONI, LCDE Advocacy Officer
June 6, 2006

BASEY, Western Samar  –  The public school of Sitio Rawis in Brgy. Guirang in this town virtually became a busy health center as more than a thousand villagers from three barrios swamped the area to avail of free health care services.

At least 1,202 patients from the villages of Guirang, Inuntan and Mabini benefited from free circumcision, surgical, dental and medical services provided by the medical mission held from May 29 to June 1.

In the medical mission, 890 patients availed of medical services, 224 for dental service, 74 had circumcision while 14 patients underwent cyst removal operation. The team noted that among the chief complaints of the patients include upper respiratory tract infection, cardiovascular disease, rheumatic arthritis, intestinal parasitism and urinary tract infection. Meanwhile 19 patients were diagnosed of pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB).

According to Jazmin Jerusalem, Executive Director of the Leyte Center for Development, the poor state of health care delivery in the three barrios was their basis for selecting these areas as beneficiaries of the mission.

“Government health care services are nil in the recipient communities due to the lack of health professionals. Worse, the villagers cannot avail of services from private or public hospitals because of financial constraint,” Jerusalem said.

Ignacio Guimbaolibot, village chief of Brgy. Guirang, attested to the shortage of health workers in the three barrios.

“Only one midwife attends to the health needs of more than 5,000 villagers in the three barrios,” he said. Guimbaolibot further said that the supply of medicines provided by the local government is not also enough to meet the health needs of the villagers.

Meanwhile, Dr. Julie Caguiat, Training Officer of the Community Medicine Development Foundation, stressed the need to increase the budget for the health sector.

“Because of the progressive reduction of government subsidy for the health sector, many public hospitals have started to step up cost recovery measures. The patients are now being made to pay hospital bills, which they cannot afford,” Caguiat said.

She cited that from 2000 to 2005, the share of health to the total budget has fallen from 1.9 percent to 1.3 percent, which has made health care services more inaccessible to the poor.

Caguiat further said that the working and living conditions of the health professionals in the country continue to worsen due to the insufficient budget.

“Our doctors and nurses work extended duty hours but their wages are below the statutory minimum wage and are sometimes delayed. This is the reason why most of our health professionals leave the country annually for employment in foreign hospitals, which offer better working conditions,” Caguiat said. She added that the mass exodus of health professionals to work abroad has made rural areas more vulnerable to human resources deficiencies.

The four-day medical mission was jointly sponsored by the Leyte Center for Development (LCDE) and the national office of Community Medicine Development Foundation (COMMED). It was participated in by a team of medical professionals sent by COMMED and volunteer students from UP Palo School of Health Sciences and St. Scholastica’s College.

The LCDE is a nongovernmental organization assisting natural and man-made disaster-stricken communities in Eastern Visayas while COMMED is a Manila-based NGO whose work focuses on community health and organizing health professionals.