Envi-health group demands fair share of budget

MANILA, Philippines - Health Care Without Harm-Southeast Asia(HCWH-SEA) recently asked members of the House of Representatives (HOR) Committee on Appropriations to push the Department of Health to report on the still unreleased 2008 and 2009 envi-health budget.

 According to Merci Ferrer, HCWH-SEA executive director, the 2008 and 2009 General Appropriation Act allots P100 million for the purchase of autoclaves for medical waste treatment and P13.2M for alternatives to mercurial thermometers for DoH-controlled hospitals. The Special Allotment Release Order (SARO) for the two appropriations is already available, but “we have yet to see the goods.”

 Autoclaves use steam to treat and disinfect infectious medical wastes. Upon disinfection, the wastes are cleaner than regular household wastes and may be discarded along with general wastes. 

“Purchase of alternative treatment technologies may not seem as urgent as dengue outbreak on the outset,” said Ferrer in a meeting with the committee. “But when you look closely, all the disease outbreaks produce more and more medical wastes that, if not treated properly, would cause more harm to hospital workers, patients, and the community.”

 He notes, “We need to look at the bigger picture. Take, for example, the case of plastics. A few years ago, people didn’t care how much plastics we used and where we threw them.  But now that we see islands of plastic wastes, we start to panic and ask, ‘How do we address the problem?’ Same is true with medical wastes.  We need to address the issue while it is still manageable.”

 With regard to the budget for alternatives to mercury thermometer, the DoH in 2008 issued Administrative Order 2008-0021 mandating the gradual phase-out of mercury-containing devices in all Philippine health care facilities and institutions by 2010.

 “September 2010 marks the deadline for the complete phase-out of mercury thermometers and blood pressure apparatus in all our hospitals. Our hospitals, local health units like the community and barangay health centers need support from the government in the phase-out and introduction of alternatives,” said Ferrer.

 Mercury, although generally thought of as the gold standard for measuring device, is harmful to people’s health and the environment. It causes tremors, emotional changes, insomnia, neuromuscular changes, headaches, disturbance in sensations, changes in nerve response, and performance deficits on cognitive functions tests.  At higher exposure, it causes damages to lungs and kidneys, as well as to the nervous, digestive, respiratory, and immune systems.

 In an ongoing survey conducted by HCWH-SEA, of the 1,851 health care facilities in the country, 556 have initiated mercury phase-out of the more than 600 hospitals who responded.   

 “Unfortunately, majority of local-government unit (LGU)-run health care facilities are so behind in the implementation of mercury phase-out due to financial problems.  The P13.2M allocation for mercury alternatives will definitely help these health care institutions,” said Ferrer.

 Ferrer stressed, “Again, this issue might seem trivial compared to disease outbreaks but keep in mind that effects of mercury exposure are irreversible. We do not want our health care institutions to bring more health problems, most especially if this is preventable.”