Mortality rate in prisons reaches ‘critical level’

HEALTH CARE PROBLEM There are only 13 doctors looking after the more than 47,000 inmates in the Bureau of Corrections’
seven prisons and penal colonies nationwide. —EARVIN PERIAS

MANILA, Philippines — The death rate among inmates  has reached a “critical level” with one dying every day due to the lack of doctors and medical equipment, the chief of the New Bilibid Prison (NBP) hospital said on Wednesday.

Although Dr. Henry Fabro, could not give the exact number of fatalities, he said that the prisoner mortality rate was currently at 0.5 percent of the total inmate population—way higher than the universally accepted figure of 0.2 percent.

“The basic problem in the short stay that we had in the NBP is that the hospital is poorly equipped. That’s why we are currently asking help from other agencies,” he told reporters at the sidelines of the 3rd Asia and Pacific Conference on Prison Health organized by the International Committee of the Red Cross in Makati City.

Severely understaffed

According to Fabro, the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor)—the agency in charge of the custody and rehabilitation of prisoners—has only 13 doctors looking after the over 47,000 inmates in seven prisons and penal colonies nationwide.

In the maximum security compound of the NBP populated by some 18,000 convicts, the hospital was staffed by just  five doctors and 40 nurses, which Fabro described as “very minimal.”

Under Republic Act 10575 or the BuCor Act of 2013, the agency should maintain the health personnel to inmate ratio at 1:80, meaning there should at least be 587 medical officers serving all prisoners in its facilities nationwide.

Besides being understaffed,  the condition of sick inmates could not be addressed adequately at the NBP hospital because it was not “well-equipped to manage these problems.”

Help needed from DOH

“Imagine the number of [prisoners] each of us are handling,” Fabro said. “That’s why we are asking the Department of Health to give us additional doctors, or help us in acquiring equipment for our hospitals.”

At least 29 NBP inmates died from Oct. 9 to 25 although BuCor chief Gerald Bantag said their deaths were not due to the lack of medical attention.

He claimed the prisoners were already suffering from medical issues even before their transfer to the prison.