Half of PNP budget on hospital reimbursements spent on dialysis

The Philippine National Police (PNP) is spending half of its P200 million annual budget for hospital reimbursements to only 77 policemen who are undergoing kidney dialysis.

This was uncovered following a nationwide study of the PNP-Program Management Office (PNP-PMO) on the medical and physical status of its personnel.

PNP chief Director General Oscar Calderon ordered the conduct of the study after noting a huge disparity in the distribution of the PNP’s budget for hospital reimbursements.

“We found out that of the P200 million annual budget for hospital reimbursements, P100 million or half of the budget goes to only 77 policemen-patients who are undergoing kidney dialysis,” PNP chief for  Directorial Staff, Deputy Director Jesus Verzosa said.

To address this concern, the PNP-PMO which Verzosa also heads, recommended that the 77 sick policemen be retired or removed from the service.

But to be fair to them, the PNP will offer a retirement or separation package through the PNP attrition board.

He said once the 77 policemen who have kidney problems and thus, are considered non-performing assets of the PNP, are removed, this would not only benefit the policemen but the entire organization as well.

Some of the 77 are even rookies.

“Bago lang sila sa serbisyo tapos may problema na kaagad sa kidney. Muhang hindi service-related ang sakit na yan. There must be some problem somewhere, especially in the recruitment stage,” Verzosa said.

Verzosa explained that the PNP has to take care of  the overall medical needs of its 120,000-strong force and allotting half of its budget to only 77 members is not fair.

“We do have now an attrition board to deliberate each case of these 77 policemen having kidney dialysis. We have to view and address this problem as a whole as it affects the morale of other troops,” Verzosa said.