The Philippine Culture in the Phase of Health Care System

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Imagine a public general hospital having too many patients, but too few health workers. New patients rushed into it almost every hour. As the patient count increases, the services and resources catered decreases. Consider the situation of running out of stretchers, and then the patients and their families chose to lie on the floor. There were also patients who were already in a critical condition and need an immediate intensive care, but still staying in a normal room. Why? Because they are still on the many lists of patients who need to be in the ICU right away. Even if they are already dying, still there is nothing that they can do about them.

On the point of view of those public health workers, they were not to be blamed. In fact, they are very burdened in their everyday work. They are, nonetheless, overworked, but underpaid. That is why, most of them tend to leave the country and work abroad to get higher salaries. Thus, the ones who continue to do their job amidst all the circumstances were made still by their passion and sense of responsibility towards fellow Filipinos, especially the poor.

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Expensive Health and Medicine

In the Philippines, we could generalize that the population is more concentrated with poor families. When I say poor, it is about the families that didn’t or weren’t capable of reaching the daily minimum living wage. In the National Capital Region (NCR) alone, the minimum daily wage is Php481 which is the highest in the country. Which means to say that in other regions in the country, the minimum wage is much lower. Unsurprisingly, the amount of Php481 is did not even reached half of the supposed family living wage of Php1,119. It is just about 43% of it.

Furthermore, the gap between the minimum wage and the family living wage is widening throughout the years. For instance, in 2015, the wage gap in 2015 is 55%. It then rose up to 2% when the gap became 57% as of 2016 (IBON, 2017). Not to mention that the family living wage can accommodate, at least nearly decent, six family members. But we cannot deny that most of those families are bigger than one can expect, which consists of a mother and father with children more than six. Some are even consist of up to 12 children. How would you provide the basic needs of each member of the family considering those many counts of stomach to feed three times a day, but with a small amount of daily income?

Being not able to satisfyingly provide the needs of each individual belonging to a family who are low wage earners, it would sometimes result to complications on one’s health – from food intakes to shelter and the kind of environment they live in every day. There was once a conference I attended, where one of the studies presented was about the health conditions of the people living in a certain slum area in Manila. It resulted in publishing an academic account that concludes some of those families who really have nothing to eat due to scarcity or food insecurity resorts to adopt into it and improvise. For instance, according to some of their respondents that they were able to interview, they sometimes eat “tirtir”, a shortened term for “tira-tira” or food leftovers, which they either buy from their other neighbors or get it free in trashes. There were also instances too, that they drink their urine as a substitute for drinking water.

When they were asked if how was their health. They would seem to have a uniform answer. It is just fine, because they choose to be. Because whether they like it or not, they still cannot afford to entertain their illnesses and avail the health care system that is merely a commodity these days, sad but true. The health centers could be an alternative aid for those who do not feel like going to the hospitals for treatment. As expected, it would just give an immediate aid, at least.

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Alternative Cures and its Challenges

In poor family settings, especially if there is an elderly in the family, they would refer to ‘hilot’, or some kind of massage. It is most likely an easy and accessible way that is, since then, believed by the Filipinos to cure some sorts of illnesses. Some would even go to an ‘albularyo’ or an herbal expert to have someone treated using those affordable plants that are believed to contain a substance that can cure their specific illness. Moreover, the concept of ‘albularyo’ differs in every place. Whereas, in many provinces in the Philippines, it is usually of someone having an extra potential, healing abilities. Like, say, in diseases that aren’t diagnosed by medical doctors, it is sometimes believed as an effect of witchery implanted towards a person. Many wouldn’t believe it because it is very impossible. As they say, it can be only seen in movies, and read in stories and comics. But there are still some who believe in it, especially those who have experience and knowledge of it. They would say it is indeed effective because many also have been cured through it.

On the licensed medical practitioners note, they are somehow concerned about it. They usually consider those ‘albularyos’ as quack doctors. Thus, it is a thing to be concerned with, because they have no consideration towards sanitation. Because some may spit to their patients and rub something such as a homemade mixture of anything or sometimes, patients have to drink it. But despite the criticisms, the act or practice of the said kind of treatment still persists up until now. For the longest time of existence, it is evident that people still patronizes it. In fact, the people who aren’t used to get cured in the hospitals are more likely to find solutions to this type of treatment. For instance, the people who are either poor who cannot afford the expensive health care system in the city or even public hospitals or the people who are hinterland-based and they cannot afford to go to those distant hospitals anymore.

Source:
http://ibon.org/2017/01/substantially-increase-wages
https://talkpoverty.org/2017/09/07/historian-explains-immigration-restrictions-always-race
https://quizlet.com/28445841/sociology-chapters-4-5-and-6-flash-cards