MANILA – The Community Medicine Practitioners and Advocates Association is asking the Department of Health to undertake more useful and practical actions for Ebola preparation.
The group, composed of doctors involved in the healthcare of rural and urban poor communities, said the DOH has been putting the blame on health workers and the media, including to some people as ranting and hyping too much on Ebola and creating hysteria.
It claimed that the DOH is the one sowing confusion because it is saying one thing and doing another regarding the Ebola quarantine. It said the DOH has been amiss in disseminating the basic information on this disease to the public so that citizens can be more aware and become part of health preparation. At the same time, health personnel in selected medical institutions while being given training on how to deal with an epidemic feel short changed and are not consulted.
The group said it is also appalled at the tokenism for political mileage of the DOH, first in initially mulling to send a team of health care workers as volunteers to West Africa – before strong public opinion against it – and then giving $1 million to the United Nations for Ebola.
Just recently, there was a government statement stating again the possibility of sending a medical team because of a breakdown in the health care system of Ebola stricken countries.
“This is ironic considering our own national government budget for health is grossly inadequate for our health needs. In spite of more than four years of “Kalusugan Pangkalahatan, the share – both DOH and local government – in our country’s total health expenditure has even decreased from 20.2% in 2011 to 18.5 % in 2012, resulting in the persistent unacceptable level of out of pocket spending of 57.6% in 2012 based on the latest National Health Accounts data,” the group said in a statement sent to the regional newspaper Mindanao Examiner.
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