A HEALTH workers’ union questioned on Monday the P2-billion cut in the proposed budget of the Philippine General Hospital (PGH) for next year, warning that the move would significantly affect the services of the understaffed hospital, which primarily serves indigent patients.
The PGH was allocated a zero-budget for capital outlay and the hiring of additional health personnel, such as nurses, nursing aides and clinical utility workers, under the proposed P5.768-trillion national budget for 2024, Karen Mae Faurillo, president of All UP Workers Union-Manila/PGH, said in a Viber message.
Ms. Faurillo said charity wards in PGH are short of two to three utility workers and nursing attendants. She noted that the hiring and filling up of nurse positions in the hospital could not cope with the attrition rate, “with 10-12 nurses resigning every month.”
“The low salary and heavy patient/workload compel our nurses to leave and seek work abroad,” she said.
“Understaffing results in frequent 16-hour duty, sickness, and demoralization among our health personnel,” she added.
Ms. Faurillo also lamented the proposed P842-million cut in PGH’s Maintenance and Other Operating Expenses (MOOE), which led to a P294-million slash in the Medical Assistance for Indigent Patients (MAIP) program.
The union is demanding a P1-billion allocation for the MAIP program.
“We resist this move as this will badly affect the services that PGH gives to the patients. The zero budget for facilities and equipment will only make it worse,” she said.
“Queuing for special procedures such as MRI (magnetic resonance imaging and CT (computerized tomography) scan can take months,” she said. “There was a point at the OPD procedures when scheduling was stopped because it could no longer accommodate the influx of patients. The equipment need timely maintenance as well.”
PGH is a tertiary state-owned hospital operated by the University of the Philippines (UP) System, which received a P22.587-billion allocation under the proposed 2024 national budget, which is lower than the P25.516-billion budget it got this year.
Of the total proposed budget for UP, P10.494 billion will be earmarked for higher education, P1.5 billion for advanced education, P766 million for research, P382 million for technical advisory extension, and P5.496 billion for hospital services or for the UP-PGH.
The hospital got P5.412 billion for this year.
Ms. Faurillo said their union has been demanding a P10-billion budget for PGH in the past four years.
“[The] Majority of the PGH patients are poor and rely on the free and quality healthcare that PGH delivers,” she said. “It only makes sense that if the Marcos government is sincere in addressing the concerns of the people, it should augment, not cut, the PGH budget.”
Reacting to this development, Kabataan Party-list said in a Viber message: “It seems that upgrading hospitals like PGH aren’t a priority in the infrastructure program of the [Ferdinand R.] Marcos Jr. administration.”
It noted that the proposed budget for the Department of Health next year was also slashed by P10 billion.
The group called for the realignment of the confidential and intelligence funds of the Office of the Vice President and the Department of Education to social services like health and education. — Kyle Aristophere T. Atienza
