FRONTLINERS On duty healthworkers wearing PPEs and face shield at the Santa Ana hospital in Manila. EDWIN BACASMAS
MANILA, Philippines — All the face shields delivered by the Department of Health (DOH) to healthcare workers are of good quality, its spokesperson assured on Saturday, after an executive of the Pharmally Pharmaceutical Corp. admitted that the company had swindled the government by selling face shields that were damaged and had false production dates.
According to Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire, the DOH also conducts inspections of the medical items it delivers to medical workers amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
“As far as DOH is concerned, whatever we were able to deliver to all of our healthcare workers ay maayos po. Hindi po kami tumatanggap talaga ng may mga sira o di kaya ay may mga ganyang klaseng discoloration o nasira na ‘yung foam. Hindi po namin ‘yan tinatanggap. We do inspections also,” she said during the Laging Handa public briefing.
(As far as DOH is concerned, whatever we were able to deliver to all of our healthcare workers is of good quality. We do not accept face shields that are damaged or have foams that have discoloration. We do not accept those. We do inspections also.)
Vergeire noted that like all medical commodities, medical-grade face shields also have a shelf life since some of its parts may deteriorate over time.
She said that the medical items being provided to health workers should also be complete and of good quality. “Kailangan lang natin i-validate talaga if these deliveries ay talagang nagkaroon ng mga ganitong kakulangan (We just need to know if the deliveries had these lapses),” she added.
“Iniimbestigahan na ‘yan and I think we just leave it to our legislators at hintayin po natin ang lalabas na resulta ng imbestigasyon,” said Vergeire.
(This is already being investigated and I think we should just leave it to our legislators. Let us wait for the result of the probe.)
During a hearing by the Senate blue ribbon committee on Friday, Pharmally Regulatory Affairs Head Krizle Mago confirmed the claim of a warehouse employee that they were ordered to replace the certificates of face shields dated 2020 with new certificates dated 2021. Mago admitted that the company may have “swindled” the government when it changed the expiration dates on the face shields it delivered.