CORAZON Locsin Montelibano Memorial Regional Hospital has felt the impact or toll of continuously operating despite the huge budget cut, citing the constantly growing number of patients coming in for various medical services every day, its hospital chief, Dr. Julius Drilon, said yesterday, June 20.
The Department of Health (DOH) allocated P1 billion budget for the regional hospital but it was cut by 40 percent or P350 million due to the "Build, Build, Build” of the national government which will be utilized for infrastructure developments in the hospitals, he said.
Its operational expense of P100 million was also cut down to P60 million.
Almost P350 million of the budget was allocated for infrastructure development which includes the funding for the new building, for other health facilities enhancement for infrastructures.
Drilon said that electricity alone, which is the third highest consumption of their expenditures, is already P36 million a year.
Their revenues are heavily dependent on Philippine Health (PhilHealth) Insurance reimbursements which comprise 52 percent.
In 2017, out of the P680 million revenue or income of the hospital, 52 percent or roughly P369 million covers PhilHealth reimbursements.
But despite all the operational challenges, "we really tried to give the public the services that are expected of us. This year, our projected income will almost be the same. If we are going to ask the P1.092 billion that the national government is giving us plus our projected income of around P650 million, that is how much the government is spending to take care of almost 240,000 patients we served year in and year out,” he said.
The impact of budget allocation is probably not known to everybody. Some only see the complaints raised by some people but we cannot avoid that, he said.
“But remember, our approved bed capacity which is the basis for the budget is for 400 beds. Our operational bed capacity is 568 patients. Our average daily census is 630 patients in any time, in any day for the last five months and what is glaring now is our bed occupancy rate is 162 percent, but our budget is only for 400 beds,” he said.
This year, our number of patients might reach 245,000 persons, he added.
Measures are being undertaken to negate this impact.
Drilon said 65 percent of the budget goes to personnel services - around P650 to P700 million goes to salaries and wages to include contractual or job order employees.
To fill up the gaps in terms of human resource, to serve 240,000 patients, the impact is "we will get it from our income for the salaries of our people. At the end of the day, we don't want to play God because we lack the budget and we still have many programs of the government that is mandatory requirement such as ‘No Balance Billing’ which has cost us around P340 million last year, he said.
"We will not have a cautious and well-planned operation within the year, we will not be able to provide those services anymore. Three years ago, we already see this coming. With the low reimbursement rate of PhilHealth, which by the way, has improved after representing ourselves in relation to our operational needs, it's difficult to balance our operational needs," Drilon said.
They had corporate strategic planning from 2015 to 2020 but had been pushed back coupled with a fact that the peso-dollar exchange rate has gone down to the lowest level in the past 12 years, the inflation rate has increased, thus, we are facing a double whammy situation considering that our medical supplies are sourced abroad. The projections in our budget went down the drain, he said.
"It takes a lot of balancing act so we can maintain the expectation of the public and the requirement of the government to us that we need to provide the medical services to the people wherein some of it is free. The things, policies, and process that we do here are all based on facts. We do not decide here based on whimsical thinking and guessing game attitude," he said.
(Ban on bringing of foods)
In the last five months, the hospital has gathered 55,970 kilos, or an average of 11,000 kilos per month, non-infectious wastes.
In order to curtail that aside from Infection and Prevention Control Program and it is a well-known fact that food brings in additional problem among patients, staff, delivering health care, among others. “When we already saw this problem, people are bringing in food without care, dumping there and everywhere plastics,” Drilon said.
“What will happen to our patients with all these risks of infections? It is very high,” he added.
"We maintain our standard of .173 percent infection rate. The Infection and Prevention Control Unit which is being handled by an Infection Control Committee is closely monitoring this,” he said.
“If we will only allow the bringing in of foods without control, what will happen to our patients? We tried to educate them. But just like any other human nature, what is not convenient for me is not good policy. Our concern here is for the welfare of our patients. We are creating a safe environment not only for the patients or clients but also to our health care workers,” he added.
“Imagine the 640 in patients, excluding those in the emergency room and the outpatients, half of the patients have their caretakers or 320 persons, if each one brings one plastic bottle, can you imagine what will happen? That is a lot of mineral water bottles that it will be dumped in our garbage. Imagine also how they screamed as if they are being prosecuted here for stopping them of that practice. We are also looking at environmental guidelines. Remember, before one can obtain an ISO certification, one has to comply with all the statute laws, rules and regulations promulgated by the regulating agencies and this is part of our resolve to comply with statutory laws, rules and regulations, not just the DOH rules but also include other government regulating agencies. It also has Civil Service Commission, Professional Regulation Commission but most of all the DENR which is very strict on this,” he said.
"You did not see yet the standard of practice of our medical staff and doctors and we are upgrading the knowledge of our 1,720 Human Resource force which is not a joke towards their engagement in public services," he added.