‘Code blue’ for government hospitals useless, health workers claim

Health workers claimed yesterday that in case of a major terror attack, most victims will have to deal with lack of medicines and supplies as well as strict collection of fees.

Emma Manuel, president of the Alliance of Health Workers (AHW), said that the "code blue" alert raised by Health Secretary Manuel Dayrit in all Metro government hospitals is useless since most of these cash-strapped institutions are either already crowded or lack basic medicines and supplies to properly treat victims.

Manuel said that in most of the hospitals such as the Jose Reyes Memorial Medical Center, the Tondo Medical Center and the East Avenue Medical Center, there is a strict enforcement of collection of fees for medicines and medical supplies.

He pointed out that government hospitals are currently suffering from lack of funds, preventing them from purchasing medical supplies and medicines.

Manuel said patients are charged even for a wad of gauze or plaster, a ball of cotton, or asked to buy their own bottle of dextrose or burn ointment, making it imperative for patients to have money with them or be accompanied by friends or relatives who can assist them during their treatment.

Dayrit raised the alert last Friday after a spate of bomb blasts rocked Zamboanga City. Later that night, a bomb exploded in a passenger bus in Quezon City, killing two people and injuring several others.

Code blue means half of the hospital’s personnel, doctors, and other paramedical staff are placed on standby for possible rapid deployment in preparation for a disaster. Hospitals should also be ready to handle as much as 50 patients at once for treatment.

Manuel said that Dayrit’s failure to work for the release of the budget allocated to government hospitals will prove catastrophic in case a major terror attack takes place in the next few days.

It will be recalled that Dayrit earlier announced that government hospitals will have to raise their own funds to address their budget shortage after the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) failed to release about 25 percent of the allocation approved by Congress.

Dayrit said that outside the 75 percent already released to government hospitals for maintenance, operations and other expenses for the first six months of the year, the DBM will only able to release P300 million for the remaining three months of the year.

Manuel also said that government hospitals have been forced to be more strict in the collection of medical fees.