MANILA, Philippines – Employees and patients of the Philippine Orthopedic Center (POC) can heave a sigh of relief for now, as President Benigno Aquino III himself has directed the health department not to sacrifice workers and patients in the modernization of the government hospital.

“The President’s directive is that two things…should not be sacrificed: No employee should lose their job, no employee should be displaced,” Health Secretary Janette Garin said during her department’s budget hearing at the House of Representatives on Wednesday, September 9.

She added: “Second, the current number of patients being catered by the Philippine Orthopedic Center should continue to be catered if indeed the modernization…will still be completed.”

The POC, which today caters to around 500 patients, is known as the only tertiary hospital specializing on bone trauma and diseases in the country.

The P8.69-billion ($185.66 million) modernization of the POC is one of the public-private partnership (PPP) projects under the Aquino administration.

Critics have called the project a move to privatize the hospital, among them, ANG NARS party list Representative Leah Paquiz who revived the issue at Wednesday’s hearing. (READ: Fears abound in Orthopedic Center’s privatization)

‘No to privatization’

“This is another form of privatization. I strongly believe we should not privatize, [but instead] strengthen capabilities in order to serve humanity,” Paquiz said.

Garin said discussions on the project are still ongoing, and while there were disagreements and nuances along the way, she assured Paquiz that the concerns of workers have been addressed.

“The modernization of the Philippine Orthopedic Center was done at a time that I was not yet the secretary of health. Upon my entry, we reviewed several items, especially the displacement of the existing POC employees as well as patient categorization as mandated in the BOT [Build-Operate-Transfer] agreement,” she explained.

“With those, I put forward several questions and I put forward a proposal for common interpretation [which] paves way for retention of existing employees as well as compliance on patient categorization as mandated by law,” Garin added.

She said the department “does not in any way tolerate privatization of government hospitals.” (READ: Orthopedic Center for modernization, not privatization)

“Rest assured, DOH is one with you in going against privatization. If it’s privatization, definitely we won’t agree with it, but if it’s modernization in a real perspective, we will support it,” Garin told Paquiz. 

Equipping POC

The health department has allocated to POC a capital outlay (CO) of P50 million ($1.07 million) in 2015, and another CO budget of P50 million in 2016.

On top of this, the hospital will also be recipient of PhilHealth investible funds that will provide for “badly needed” equipment such as X-rays, CT scan, and other expensive equipment.

The DOH is asking Congress for a total 2016 budget of P125.95 billion ($2.69 billion) – an increase from P90.29 billion ($1.93 billion) in 2015. 

This includes budget for attached agencies (National Nutrition Council, Commission on Population), attached corporation (Philippine Institute of Traditional and Alternative Health Care), and corporate hospitals (Lung Center of the Philippines, National Kidney and Transplant Institute, Philippine Children’s Medical Center, Philippine Heart Center).

The proposed budget for the Office of the Secretary is P122.73 billion ($2.62 billion), bigger than its allotment of P86.97 billion ($1.86 billion) in 2015. – Rappler.com

US$1 = P46.81