Ortho center being crippled

Philippine Daily Inquirer

11:37 pm | Sunday, January 8th, 2012

Last Nov. 29, 2011, the Inquirer ran a news article (MPIC eyes govt orthopedic center) which reported that business mogul Manny Pangilinan was interested in acquiring the Philippine Orthopedic Center because Metro Pacific seeks to groom the Philippine Orthopedic Center as the premier center for bone diseases, trauma, rehabilitation and commercial production of limb prosthesis. Now its getting clearer by the day that our hospital, the Philippine Orthopedic Center, the premier and only musculo-skeletal and rehabilitation hospital in the Philippines, will also be privatized. Under the public-private partnership program, Department of Health-controlled hospitals are up for grabs to private investors. Once privatized, these supposed centers of wellness and health for Filipinos will be transformed into private milking cows of big businesses. Hospitals then would be like shopping malls where penniless citizens cannot afford a pricey commodity: health care. Our clients are 95 percent classified indigent patients coming from various provinces nationwide. Let me add that our hospital is also the unofficial hospital for poor workers, many of whom suffer industrialrelated admissionsfrom broken bones due to a fall from high-rise constructions, to mangled limbs due

Metro Pacific eyes govt orthopedic hospital

Source: Philippine Daily Inquirer, 28 November 2011

MANILA, PhilippinesInfrastructure holding firm Metro Pacific Investments Corp. (MPIC) is interested in taking over the state-run Philippine Orthopedic Center under a private-public partnership framework, as part of efforts to scale up its healthcare business. MPIC affirmed to the Philippine Stock Exchange on Monday its interest in expanding its hospital chain, consistent with its strategy of forming the first nationwide network of hospitals in the country. As such, we would be open to consider participating in the planned bidding for the modernization of the Philippine Orthopedic Center under the governments PPP program, the disclosure said. The modernization of this 700-room tertiary hospital at the corner of Maria Clara and Banawe streets in Quezon City is among the medium-term PPP projects that the government The PPP proposal seeks to groom the Philippine Orthopedic Center as the premier center for bone diseases, trauma, rehabilitation and commercial production of limb prosthesis. MPIC noted that to date, however, no definitive decision had been made, considering that the terms of reference for said bidding has not been released. The MPIC group now has six hospitals in its nationwide healthcare network equivalent to in excess of 1,800 beds across the archipelago. The latest acquisition was that of upscale 219-bed Asian Hospital in Filinvest Corporate City, Alabang. The group also controls Makati Medical Center, Cardinal Santos Medical Center in San Juan, and the Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Sta. Mesa. Manila. MPIC has also invested in Riverside Medical Center in Bacolod and Davao Doctors Hospital in Mindanao. The Metro Pacific group plans to scale up its hospital group, currently the smallest in its infrastructure portfolio, into a P10-billion business in five years by acquiring more hospitals and unlocking more values from them. By operating a chain of hospitals, the group can benefit from improved purchasing leverage which in turn could translate to lower prices for patients. Given an increasingly regulated environment, the groups strategy is to map out capital outlays based on each hospitals cash generating ability as well as to identify the specialization of each unit and share expertise with affiliates. to machine malfunctions. We are a poor mans hospital. I must admit that we may not have the best smelling restrooms, but we have one of the most dedicated groups of health workersdespite the meager government support we are getting. We have managed to help a lot of people recover even when our budget has been dismally small for the past five years. I am as baffled as everyone else why in the world President Aquino and Health Secretary Enrique Ona would want it privatized. The only thing I can associate with the word privatization is profit. Why would the government want to profit from the misery, ill-health and disfiguration of its own people? Isnt health a basic right associated with the right to life itself? The government should infuse more funds to health care service and health care human resource. It should stop pushing hospitals to be financially autonomous because a service institution that deals with the lives and health of Filipinos should not be likened to a sari-sari store. Hospitals are more like a family where the services of kin are rendered out of love, not motivated by profits. Please dont cripple the Philippine Orthopedic Center through privatization and neglect. SEAN HERBERT VELCHEZ, RN, president, National Orthopedic Hospital