Palace asked to answer plea vs privatization of orthopedic center

By: Tetch Torres-Tupas - 11 years ago

Philippine Orthopedic Center in Banawe st., Quezon City. Photo from https://en.wikipedia.org

MANILA, Philippines – The Supreme Court ordered Malacañang to answer the petition to stop the government from pushing through with the privatization of the Philippine Orthopedic Center (POC).

High Court’s Information Chief Theodore Te said the high court gave Malacañang and other respondents 10 days to comment.

Aside from President Benigno Aquino III, other respondents include Health Secretary Enrique Ona, Health Undersecretary Teodoro Herbosa, Public Private Partnership Center, Jan Irish Villegas, project manager, Modernization of the Philippine Orthopedic Center, National Economic Development Authority, NEDA-Investment Coordinating Committee and Consortium of Megawide Construction Corporation and World City Medical Center.

Petitioners led by indigent patients and health workers and other organizations said the privatization violates the constitutionally guaranteed rights to health care and equitable access to health services.

The “Modernization of the Philippine Orthopedic Center” project is under the Public-Private Partnership scheme of the Aquino administration – the first government hospital to be privatized. The project costing P5.6 billion was awarded to Megawide Construction Corp. and World Citi Consortium.

The petitioners said the State’s responsibility to provide and ensure a basic social service “should not be relinquished to a private entity through privatization or commercialization of a government hospital to the prejudice of the poor and underprivileged.”

The POC is a DOH-retained hospital. It is the country‘s only hospital specializing inorthopedic disorders including cases of spinal cord injuries. It is being privatized as part of President Aquino’s Private Public Partnership (PPP) project of funding even social services.

Under the winning bid, the “modernized” POC is allowed to allocate only 70 beds for service (indigent) patients and 420 for sponsored (PhilHealth) patients – compared to the current 562 beds or 85 percent capacity for indigent patients. The new management would have an option not to accommodate non-paying patients if the 70 beds are already occupied.

POC employees also face the possibility of losing their jobs. The contract makes the workforce private, such that those who wish to remain in government service have to transfer to another DOH hospital. Those who choose to stay at POC are not assured that they will be absorbed.

Petitioners included doctors and nurses from the Network Opposed to Privatization of Public Hospitals and Health Services (NOP), Council for Health and Development (CHD), Nars ng Bayan Community Health Nurses’ Association, Alliance of Health Workers (AHW), Health Alliance for Human Rights (HAHR), People’s Health Movement, Community Medicine Practitioners and Advocates Association (COMPASS); Head Alliance for Democracy (HEAD), leaders of citizens’ groups Makabayan, Gabriela, Kalipunan ng Damayan ng Mahihirap (KADAMAY), Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU), and congressmen from Bayan Muna and Kabataan partylist.