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Tuesday, July 23, 2002
Health care summit to highlight consumer rights
By Cherry T. Lim
IN Central Visayas, there are 17 infant deaths for every 1,000 live births. The non-poor use health facilities more than the poor. The leading cause of death in Cebu City is cardiovascular disease. And the health of a nation is not always dependent on its economic wealth.
These and other facts and figures will be presented during the 1st Cebu Health Care Expo and Consumer Summit slated for Aug. 29-31 at the SM City Cebu Trade Hall.
In a press conference Friday at the Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCCI) office, Dr. Vic Ynclino, chairman of the health and environment committee of the CCCI, expressed openness to suggestions from the public on topics they may want included in the summit, like vegetarianism and alternative medicine.
The expo and summit are spearheaded by the CCCI, FriendlyCare Foundation, Department of Health (DOH), Philhealth and the Cebu City Government.
Jose Ng, CCCI president, said the event aimed to make consumers aware of their rights to health care.
Dr. Susana Madarieta of the DOH voiced the agency’s intention of including alternative medicine as among the topics of the summit.
“We have an attached agency of the DOH, the Philippine Institute of Traditional and Alternative Health Care, studying herbal medicine, acupuncture and traditional healers,” she said.
Cheap drugs
She added that the DOH planned to put up a booth to display the low-priced medicines imported from India by the DOH and the Department of Trade and Industry through the parallel drug importation program called “Gamot na Mabisa at Abot-Kaya.”
About 40 kinds of the most commonly used drugs are now being sold at low prices at Vicente Sotto Memorial Hospital, St. Anthony Mother and Child Hospital, Talisay District Hospital, Eversley Childs Sanitarium in Cebu; and in the Don Emilio del Valle Memorial Hospital in Ubay and Gov. Celestino Gallares Memorial Hospital in Tagbilaran, Bohol.
Dr. Estella Egoña of the Cebu City Health Department said she would work with the DOH to ensure that these drugs be promoted by those manning the 80 barangay health centers in the city.
Due to fund limitations, health centers focus on serving “the poorest of the poor,” she said, by providing free services such as prenatal care, home delivery, immunization, and leprosy and tuberculosis treatment, among others.
In dire need
But surveys show that while lower-income groups flock to government hospitals and health centers where service costs are subsidized, most of these facilities are in dire need of repair and upgrading and often experience shortages in personnel, medical supplies and materials.
Mike Lucero, Friendly-Care Foundation marketing manager, said the summit and expo aimed to make consumers aware that they had the right to choose their medicine depending on their budget.
CCCI’s Ng said the chamber was supporting a call by Trade Secretary Mar Roxas to call for an investigation on why medicine prices are high in the country, and would come up with a resolution to that effect.
According to documents provided by the CCCI, the health care industry serves a local household market estimated at P40 billion.
In 1998, some 40 percent of households had at least one member belonging to a health care financing scheme or an insurance plan. And over 90 percent of such households belonged to Medicare.
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