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Manila Bulletin devider Philippines devider National devider Pandemic called eye opener on plight of PH healthcare system

Pandemic called eye opener on plight of PH healthcare system

Published Aug 29, 2020 05:17 pm

The COVID-19 pandemic has become an “eye opener” on the current plight of the country’s healthcare system, said Department of Health (DoH) Secretary Francisco Duque III.

Duque said that the global health crisis has revealed the weaknesses of the Philippines’ healthcare system.

“This pandemic, COVID-19, is an eye opener. Why do I say this is an eye opener? Binuksan, ang ating mga mata sa kahinaan pala ng sistemang pangkalusugan ng Pilipinas. Nakita natin ang (It opened our eyes on the weakness of the Philippine health system. We have seen the) cracks, fissures in the Philippine healthcare system,” said Duque during a dialogue with the local government officials of Quezon City Saturday.

The Health chief admitted that the country had a hard time responding during the start of the COVID-19 outbreak.

“When this virus started to enter the country, we were struggling. Alam po natin lahat iyan. Talagang nahirapan tayo (We all know that. We were really struggling),” said Duque.

However, Duque said that the country was able to improve its capacity during the pandemic.

“Nagkaroon tayo ng COVID-19, ano ang mga mabuting idinulot po nito? From one laboratory, RITM (Research Institute for Tropical Medicine), just one -- over the longest time for several decades we only had one lab. And initially, it could not even diagnose or detect cases of COVID-19. Today, we have 108 laboratories,” he said.

Initially, the Philippines needed to send swab samples to the Victorian Infectious Diseases Reference Laboratory in Melbourne, Australia for COVID-19 confirmation.

The Health chief also noted that additional quarantine centers were also established.

“Ang atin pong mga isolation and quarantine facilities, mabibilang mo sa daliri ng inyong mga kamay. Iilan-ilan lang (Our isolation and quarantine facilities, you can count on the fingertips of your hands. We only have a few),” he said.

“Ngayon (Today), we have 150,000 temporary treatment and monitoring facility beds (in) over 10,000 facilities all over the country. Dati lima, pito (There used to be five, seven quarantine centers),” he added.

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