Congress is set to begin today its inquiry into the state funding and performance of public hospitals and other health facilities in the country.
The committee on public accounts, chaired by Rep. Mike Defensor of Anakalusugan Party-list, and the committee on health led by Quezon Rep. Angelina Tan will conduct the investigation in aid of legislation.
Defensor, vice chairman of the health committee, filed House Resolution No. 686 seeking the congressional inquiry into the matter.
Officials of the Department of Health, government and private hospitals, and representatives of the Union of Local Authorities of the Philippines have been invited to the public hearing.
In a resolution, Defensor cited a World Health Organization study on the “inefficiencies and inequities” of the country’s health-care delivery system.
He quoted the study that “the fragmented nature of health financing, devolved structure of service delivery, and mixed public-private health system pose immense challengers to correcting the inefficiencies and monitoring the performance of the Philippine health sector.”
According to the study, as of 2016, there were 90,308 nurses, 40,775 doctors, 43,044 midwives, and 265 medical technologists in the health care sector, with hospitals more than 90 percent of doctors and nurses.
Two-thirds of hospital beds were in Luzon, including Metro Manila.
The party-list lawmaker said there is a need to undertake a comprehensive assessment of the state, capacity and performance of health facilities to promote efficiency and effectiveness in the delivery of health services.
The two committees would also look into the government’s health facilities improvement program, for which Congress has been allocating billions in taxpayers’ money annually since the Aquino administration.
Defensor said he wants to know what the DOH has accomplished with the huge amount allocated for the program, what hospitals have been improved and what new facilities have been built.
Under the previous administration, funds had been spread thin through the construction of barangay health centers costing P1.5 million to P2 million throughout the country.
But Defensor said many of these centers are now idle because they have no personnel, equipment and even basic medicines and supplies.