A CEBUANO congresswoman has filed a bill requiring all national, regional, and provincial government hospitals to establish, operate, and maintain a dialysis ward that will provide free dialysis treatment to indigent patients during the first regular session of the 19th Congress.
Mandaue Lone District Representative Emmarie "Lolypop" Ouano-Dizon said she filed House Bill 2373 on Tuesday, July 26, 2022, in line with the statement of President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. in his State of the Nation Address (SONA) on Monday, July 25, that setting up regional specialty hospitals is one of the priorities in his administration.
"Napakinabangan natin nang husto ang malalaking specialty hospitals gaya ng Heart Center, Lung Center, Children’s Hospital at National Kidney and Transplant Institute. Kaya maliwanag na hindi lang dapat dito sa National Capital Region, kundi maging sa ibang parte ng bansa kailangan magdagdag ng ganitong uri ng mga pagamutan," part of the President Marcos' SONA reads.
(We have benefited a lot from these large hospitals like the Heart Center, Lung Center, Children's Hospital and National Kidney and Transplant Institute. Thus the need to put up this kind of hospitals not only in the National Capital Region but also in other parts of the country).
Ouano-Dizon explained to SunStar Cebu on Tuesday the bill's relevance stating Chronic Kidney Disease as one of the leading causes of mortality among the Filipinos.
"The optimum frequency of dialysis treatment is three times a week. But some Filipino patients would settle with once or twice a week because of its high cost and inaccessibility. Some patients die without even the chance to undergo the treatment because they could not afford it," she added.
The lawmaker stressed that kidney failure is the ninth leading cause of death in the country, especially in the indigenous sector, emphasizing that an increase of about 10 to 20 percent of new patients undergoing dialysis in 2018 has been noted by some experts.
Once the bill becomes a law, those strategic national, regional, and provincial government hospitals will be given two years to establish, operate, and maintain a dialysis service facility for the penniless patients since its effectivity.
Any head or administrator of hospital and other health facilities operating these dialysis centers who fails to comply with this law shall pay a fine of at least P50,000 up to P100,000. (HIC)