MANILA, Philippines—At least four private hospitals in Metro Manila said they would not join a “hospital holiday” being planned by a group of private hospitals to protest the start of price control on five essential medicines on Aug. 15

Officials of the privately-owned Makati Medical Center, Medical City, St. Luke’s Hospital and University of Sto. Tomas Hospital Tuesday assured the Department of Health (DoH) that they had no problem with the implementation of the presidential order setting the maximum retail price starting Aug. 15.

Over the weekend, representatives of the Private Hospitals Association of the Philippines (PHAP) threatened to stage a “hospital holiday,” meaning they would only accept emergency cases during the period of protest.

PHAP wants Malacañang to delay the effectivity of Executive Order 821 until its member hospitals finish selling all existing stocks which were purchased at higher prices.

A scheduled meeting between officials of the DoH and PHAP Tuesday was postponed because key hospital officials were in Vietnam on official business.

Dr. Robert So, program director of the DoH’s National Drug Policy which oversees government efforts to bring down the cost of medicines, said officials of Makati Medical Center, Medical City, St. Luke’s Hospital, University of Santo Tomas Hospital and the government-run Philippine General Hospital were at the meeting.

So said the price difference between the existing market price and the new price ceilings should be shouldered by the drug manufacturers and not by the retailers which includes drugstores and hospital pharmacies.

He said the DoH was waiting for PHAP officials to return so they could sit down for a dialogue.

“They have been invited so we expect to talk soon,” he said. “It may be that not all private hospitals know the details of the [executive order], so maybe it’s a case of inadequate information dissemination.”

PHAP legal counsel Dr. Bu Castro Tuesday said they were not satisfied with the “verbal commitment” given by drug companies to give rebates to drugstores and pharmacies once the price reductions start.

Castro said their member-hospitals fear they may go into “bankruptcy” if the implementation of the drug maximum retail price is not delayed.

“We will tell [the staff] that we can’t afford to pay [their] salaries anymore. We are not blackmailing anyone. But this is something that could happen. Will the staff still want to report to work? If no one will report to work, the hospital will be closed,” he said.

Malacañang’s EO 821 is setting a maximum retail price on the anti-hypertensive drug amlodipine, the anti-cholesterol drug atorvastatin, the antibiotic/antibacterial drug azithromycin, and the anti-neoplastics/anti-cancer drugs cytarabine and doxorubicin.
The DoH had originally drawn up a list of 21 essential drugs which it found to be sold at exorbitant prices. But in a bid to preempt the government price control law, drug companies agreed to voluntarily lower the prices of 16 of these drugs by at least 50 percent and offered to reduce the prices of 22 other medicines by 10 to 50 percent.

Despite the threat of a hospital protest, DoH officials said they will not push back the much-awaited implementation of EO 821.