Cha-Cha will kill public healthcare – HEAD

Press release: February 24, 2018

The 100% foreign ownership provision under the Duterte administration's charter-change (Cha-Cha) completes the long-term scheme to sell and privatize public utilities, including government hospitals. Foreign corporations want complete takeover, and the Duterte administration, in connivance with the supermajority in Congress, is too eager to oblige. This will usher the death of public healthcare.

Healthcare has long been targeted to be part of free-market opportunities. Notice how most hospital equipment, even syringes and cotton balls, are all imported and expensive? That is just one aspect. The beautification of government hospitals – despite understaffing, inadequate beds, and lack of medicine and supplies – is no accident. Government policy dictates superficial improvements to make hospitals enticing for investors, and Duterte's Cha-Cha ensures that foreign corporations can own government hospitals.

Corporate takeover of healthcare will result to increased healthcare costs. And with 100% takeover, government funds through PhilHealth will only be siphoned to make huge profits for these foreign corporations. That is if PhilHealth coverage can be availed in the first place, otherwise out-of-pocket expenditures of patients will sky rocket.

The Duterte administration's Cha-Cha will constitutionalize privatization, deregularization, denationalization, and free trade deals. Public healthcare in the Philippines will not only worsen but will cease to exist under Cha-cha, and with this comes the death of Filipinos.

Charter change will erode the remaining pro-people and nationalist provisions of the 1987 Constitution. The phrase "security of tenure" will be deleted, allowing businesses to make super profit, but upon the back of contractual labor and cheap wage. Genuine agrarian reform will be thrown out of the way, allowing more foreign plantations for export instead of sustainable growth. Medicines shall remain expensive because they are imported, despite raw materials being sourced here.

If we want to increase health workers' wages, the sale of hospitals to private and foreign corporations needs to be prevented. If we want free and accessible healthcare services, we need to overcome free-market ideologies that seek to profit over health. If we want a free, comprehensive, and progressive healthcare system, we need to stop charter change.##

HEAD to DOH: More dialogue, more action, more accountability

Press release: February 8, 2018

The "sudden" loss of trust in the government immunization program or rapid drop in children getting immunization is not just solely due to Dengvaxia, the Public Attorneys Office pronouncements, or even poorly informed/opinionated media slant. This may have been long time coming and the government just refused to acknowledge the signs.

For decades, the government immunization program has been implemented with little informed consent and no real information given to the public. Proper information has not been disseminated, so it has become very easy for the public to be convinced with poor or even wrong information, just like what is happening now.

If fears of the public are still not being assuaged, the Department of Health needs to do more, reach out more, and ensure that from the smallest health center to the biggest hospital, all are prepared to meet the needs of Dengvaxia children.

The people are waiting for doctors to talk to them and not just talk among themselves. If the public cannot hear our doctors, then the message might not be getting across. Perhaps it's not even what people need to hear.

In short, only by being forthcoming and acknowledging the pros and cons of vaccines will it be possible to regain public trust. More correct information through sincere dialogues at the grassroots level will be key, rather than just proclaiming expertise. Unless the DOH does more to serve and engage the people, fear and anxiety will continue to fester.##

Address the chaos, prosecute perpetrators

Press release: February 7, 2018 

Sanofi-Pasteur, the Aquino administration, and former health secretary Janette Garin must be held accountable for the Dengvaxia fiasco, according to Health Alliance for Democracy, an organization composed of doctors, nurses, midwives, health workers and other professionals. Address the chaos, and there should be punishment for deceit!

"Corporate greed and corruption have systematically put Filipino children to harm's way," said Dr. Joseph Carabeo, HEAD Secretary General. "The haste for profit and commission has put to bad light our country's vaccination programs, which are a generally useful and a preventive health intervention."

"The parents' worries remain," said Carabeo. "They ask where they will go if their child gets sick. Would there be free treatment for those who were vaccinated? These questions remain even for the general Filipino public."

"The Department of Health must therefore ensure strict monitoring, free healthcare, and check-ups for the affected population," added Carabeo. "An extensive education campaign is also necessary, while the Duterte administration must do its utmost in holding accountable the perpetrators in the Dengvaxia fiasco. These steps will help bring back the trust that was lost for vaccination programs."

HEAD also encourages our colleagues in the health profession to join forces. Take the initiative and let's go down to communities to explain and calm down the parents, conduct educational forums on vaccination to alleviate their fears.

As long as our healthcare and drug industry are dependent on big foreign pharmaceuticals, as long as government officials prioritize profit and self-interest, the people's health will suffer and the Dengvaxia fiasco will repeat itself. Corporate greed and corruption must never triumph over the people's welfare. Therefore the struggle for a free, comprehensive, and progressive healthcare is needed more than ever.##