EDITORIAL : 1 million pesos a day for health care in Pangasinan

Spending PhP 1 million pesos a day for health care in Pangasinan is understandable to health care managers.
But spending PhP 1 million pesos a day for health care in Pangasinan is mind boggling to ordinary farmers.
There are a number of people who have escaped public hospitals because they do not have the capacity to pay their hospitalization bills.

A pregnant woman gave birth in a public hospital in Pangasinan and was billed P12,000 for hospitalization costs, medicines and laboratory examinations, among others, but did not have the money to pay…escaped.
People do not get cured with nicely painted hospital buildings.
People get red with proper medical attention.
How many doctors, nurses and allied health professionals does the province of Pangasinan have to take care of medical needs of its people?
Most often than not, a patient in a public hospital has to buy medicines outside of the hospital because its pharmacy does not have enough stocks.
The provincial budget of health care is PhP386.9 million.
There are 365 days in a year, this means PhP1.06 million per day as budget for health care.
With Php1 million pesos a day budget for health care in public hospitals, medical services to patients are still wanting.
Accessibility to hospitals is the ability to get into a health facility at any time of need and the province has 14 hospitals.
Affordability means that the health services are within the paying capacity of clients…but for the majority who are poor, a simple medical illness will is great financial burden to them.
There is a need to economically enable the people of Pangasinan to pay for their health care so that the government does not have to explain why it is spending PhP 1 million pesos a day for health care.