HOSPITALS URGE DoH TO WORK FOR RELEASE OF 100 M FUND FOR HEALTH

March 24, 2009

HOSPITALS URGE DoH TO WORK FOR RELEASE OF 100 M FUND FOR HEALTH

Manila – Hospitals all over the country together with Health Care Without Harm-Southeast Asia (HCWH-SEA) recently sent a letter addressed to Health Secretary Francisco T. Duque III urging the latter “to find the most expeditious way” to see the release of the P100 million budget for autoclaves for the treatment of infectious medical waste.

In the General Appropriations Act (GAA) of 2008, P100 million was appropriated for autoclaves for medical waste treatment in the budget approved for the Department of Health (DoH). However, to date, the project is awaiting House of Representatives Committee on Appropriations Secretary Junie Cua’s and Speaker Prospero Nograles‘s endorsements for the fund’s release by the Department of Budget and Management (DBM).

According to Ronnel Lim, HCWH-SEA Anti-Incineration Program Officer, “The Philippine Congress has responded to the need for the treatment of infectious medical waste by appropriating the money for it in 2008.”

“The DoH should actively work to access the fund that has been made available to it.”

To autoclave or not
Autoclave uses steam under pressure to treat cultures and stocks, sharps, materials contaminated with blood and limited amounts of fluid, isolation and surgery wastes, laboratory wastes (excluding chemical wastes), and soft waste.

Since the use of incinerators to dispose medical wastes has been banned by the 1999 Clean Air Act, autoclave is among the accepted methods to treat waste. According to a World Health Organization report, waste produced by health care facilities carries a higher potential for infection and injury than any other kind of waste.

“DoH”s National Center for Health Facility Development has already identified the hospitals that could host the autoclaves that could treat the wastes of several hospitals within a catchment area,” said Lim.

Case in point is Baguio City. In the Hospital Waste Assessment Project (HWAP) report released by HCWH-SEA, the approximated volume of infectious waste produced in a month in seven Baguio hospitals is 9,708 kg. A 24 x 34 autoclave treating 50 kg of waste per hour and running for 10 hours a day can treat 17,500 kg of infectious wastes in a month.

“The amount of infectious wastes produced by the hospitals is much smaller than the potential capacity of the autoclave. Thus the services may even be extended to nearby hospitals,” said Lim.

Impounded fund?
Although the third highest allocation in the 2008 GAA, health budget accounts only for 1.25% of the total budget. For 2009, health budget is less than one-tenth of debt interest.

“Considering that health budget is already very limited, the last thing we want to happen is for an appropriated budget to end up unreleased ,” said Lim.

In 2008, an Impoundment Control bill was filed at the lower house to stop the President from transferring appropriated fund that was not released from one agency to another. Unreleased funds automatically revert back to the national treasury and thus may be appropriated to other agencies/projects as deemed necessary by the President.

Appropriated funds may not be released if the agency fails to comply with the documentary requirements of the DBM.

“Thus we are urging Speaker Nograles and Committee Chair Cua and the DBM to do all the necessary steps to expedite the release of the fund,” said Lim.

“We also urge the DoH to seriously follow-up on the release of fund for the autoclave project.”

Signatories of the letter are: Sr. Norma Vicentillo, SPC and Loreta Sumawang (Notre Dame de Chartres Hospital, Baguio City), Wilson Baladad (Pines City Doctors Hospital, Baguio City), Remedios Banta (Saint Louis Hospital of the Sacred Heart, Baguio City), Dr. George Pangwi (Pines City Doctors Hospital, Baguio City), Col. Ronaldo C. Cruz, MC (GSC) (Fort del Pilar Station Hospital, Philippine Military Academy, Baguio City), Engr. Worley Imbat (Baguio General Hospital), Ester Borja (Philippine Heart Center), Susan Enriquez (General Santos Doctors Hospital, General Santos City), Zenaida Talagtag (Philippine Children’s Medical Center), Sr. Ma. Jessica Formacion (St. Paul Hospital,Tuguegarao City) Engr. Aida Calma (San Lazaro Hospital), Richael Batang (St. Paul Hospital, Tuguegarao City), Engr. Cesar Yangat (Lung Center of the Philippines), Sr. Trecella May C. Macalam (School of Health Sciences, St. Paul University, Tuguegarao City), Sr. Evelyn Aguilar and Henriel Mojado (St. Paul Hospital Cavite), Dr. Susana A. Salvacion (Philippine Nurses Association), Camilla C. Sarmiento (Northern Samar Provincial Government Environment and Natural Resources Office), Elena L. Bologa and Lilia Almasco (Northern Samar Provincial Hospital, Catarman, Norther Samar), and Dr. Michelle Sunico (UP College of Dentistry, Manila).

Health Care Without Harm (HCWH) is a global coalition of more than 400 organizations in more than 50 countries working to protect health by reducing pollution in health care sector. For more information, visit www.noharm.org. (30)