December 10, 2009
GROUP WARNS PUBLIC HEALTH CHAOS IN THE HORIZON
Climate change to impact mental health
Health Care Without Harm-Southeast Asia (HCWH-SEA) warns of public health chaos if public health is not given attention in the climate talks in Copenhagen.
“We have all the ingredients for public health chaos in this time of climate change: our geographical location, low health budget and poor public health performance,” said Merci Ferrer, HCWH-SEA Executive Director.
Recipe for chaos
In the proposed 2010 national budget, health accounts only 2% of the total government budget. While it may appear that the budget increased, its share of the national budget has shrunk compared to 2.2% in 2009.
“As it is, according to the latest Millennium Development Goals (MDG) Philippine Progress Report, targets related to health are the least likely to be met. Now add climate change and our public health is doomed.”
“And beyond the expected effect on physical health, the population’s mental health is also at risk,” Ferrer added.
Climate change and mental health
Recently, two leading mental health researchers warned that one important health consequence of climate change will be on mental health.
Dr. Lisa Page and Dr. Louise Howard of the Institute of Psychiatry (IoP) at King’s College of London reviewed several researches of scientists on the potential impacts of climate change on mental health. They concluded that climate change has the potential to have significant negative effects on global mental health.
According to the two, the effects will be felt most by those with pre-existing serious mental illness, but that there is also likely to be an increase in the overall burden of mental disorder worldwide.
“For many years, health issue has been a missing link in this climate change debate. But public health damage brought by recent typhoons that visited the country has given us a glimpse of what it would be like if health is not given importance in this talk,” said Ferrer.
“We saw the damage to infrastructure and agriculture, the resurgence of diseases… Sadly, we also had to bare witness to the shattered morale of both young and old typhoon victims.”
HCWH has been emphasizing the devastating impacts of climate change to the people’s health around the world. The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Monday issued a declaration that called greenhouse gases a danger to public health.
According to the article, The impact of climate change on mental health (but will mental health be discussed at Copenhagen?) published in Psychological Medicine, impact to mental health may come in several forms, such as:
• Natural disasters, such as floods, cyclones and droughts, are predicted to increase as a consequence of climate change. Adverse psychiatric outcomes are well documented in the aftermaths of natural disasters and include post-traumatic stress disorder, major depression and somatoform disorders.
• The needs of people with chronic mental illness have often been overlooked following disaster in favour of trauma-focused psychological interventions and yet the mentally ill occupy multiple vulnerabilities for increased mortality and morbidity at such times.
• As global temperatures increase, people with mental illness are particularly vulnerable to heat-related death. Contributing risk factors such as psychotropic medication, pre-existing respiratory and cardiovascular disease and substance misuse, are all highly prevalent in people with serious mental illness. In addition, maladaptive coping mechanisms and poor quality housing are likely to further increase vulnerability, and death by suicide may also increase above a certain temperature threshold.
• Adverse impacts such as psychological distress, anxiety and traumatic stress resulting from emerging infectious disease outbreaks are also likely to increase if the predicted outbreaks of serious infectious diseases become reality.
• Coastal change and increased flooding is expected to lead to forced mass migration and displacement, which will undoubtedly lead to more mental illness in affected population.
• Urbanization, a phenomenon which will be partially beneficial, for example by increasing opportunities for work and better access to health services, is associated with an increased incidence of schizophrenia in developed countries. In many low- and middle-income countries, mental health provision is already hugely inadequate and is unlikely to be prioritized should further economic collapse occur secondary to climate change.
• The knowledge of man-made climate change could in itself have adverse effects on individual psychological well-being.
The signs of mental torment
“What is most frightening is PGMA’s declaration that the Philippines need not insist on deep and early cuts in carbon emission citing that the climate talks may suffer the fate of the failed Doha talks,” said Ferrer.
“It is very disconcerting to hear this while you read a paper saying this decade is likely to be the hottest this year or that we expect another 3 or 4 typhoons before the years ends or that Philippines will no longer have summer season… And especially coming from the head of the country,” Ferrer added.
“We are calling on the Philippine delegation to Copenhagen to look at the current state of our country. With our limited resources, can we handle another crisis?”
HCWH is an international coalition of more than 470 organizations in 52 countries, working to transform the health care sector worldwide, without compromising patient safety or care, so that it is ecologically sustainable and no longer a source of harm to public health and the environment. For more information on HCWH-Southeast Asia, see www.noharm.org.ph.
Sonia G. Astudillo, +63 918 9182369, sonia@hcwh.org / Merci Ferrer, + 63 920 9056113, merci@hcwh.org
Thursday, December 10, 2009
PGMA UNFIT FOR CLIMATE TALKS
December 3, 2009
PGMA UNFIT FOR CLIMATE TALKS
As countries prepare for the Conference of Parties (COP) 15 under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), an international organization was aghast to know that no less than President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo (PGMA) will be heading the Philippine delegation in Copenhagen on December 7 to 18.
“How can PGMA head the Philippine delegation?” asked Merci Ferrer, Executive Director of Health Care Without Harm-Southeast Asia (HCWH). “And how can she negotiate for our future when she in fact is guilty of adding up to the burgeoning problems of climate change by impounding billions of meritorious health allocations?”
In 2008 alone, P2.32 billion health allocations from the General Appropriations Act (1) remain unreleased by the government. Earlier in a petition addressed to PGMA, 1,200 individuals and organizations from Argentina, India, Kenya, other Latin American countries, Mexico, Nepal, South Africa, Uganda, and United States (2) demanded the release of these appropriations.
“Public health issue has been a missing link in this climate change debate. Leaders around the world, for years, talk about the damage to agriculture, infrastructure, food security and economic activities but fail to look at the effect to people’s health,” said Ferrer. “It is only now that we are recognizing the health risks posed by global climate change.”
The Lancet, one of the world’s best-known and most respected general medical journals, reported that climate change is the biggest global health threat of the 21st century.
“Unfortunately, PGMA is not one of those enlightened leaders who see the connection as evidenced in the wanton impoundment of budget for both health and the environment.”
Health and Climate
“The connection is very clear,” Ferrer pointed out.
Reports say that the world is the warmest it has been in the last 12,000 years as a result of warming over the past 30 years. (3) The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) predicts a 1.4 0 C to 5.8 0 C rise in temperature by 2100.
“Global warming causes drought, famine, extreme temperature, floods… in different parts of the globe. We need not look far to see the health risks brought by the typhoons Ondoy and Pepeng,” Ferrer pointed out.
In the Asia-Pacific region, El Nino and La Nina events have affected the occurrence of dengue fever outbreaks. Countless examples show the emergence and recurrence of diseases brought by climate change. (4)
Dhaka, Manila and Jakarta were named by the World Wide Fund for Nature as the Asian cities most vulnerable to climate change.
Children at risk
Children are again at risk in this climate change issue.
The World Health Organization (WHO) reports startling effects to children’s health. According to the report, over 5 million children per year die from illnesses and other conditions caused by the environment in which they live, learn and play. While around 2 million children under five die every year from acute respiratory infections. The infections are aggravated by environment hazards such as indoor air pollution.
United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) said that two thirds of all preventable ill health due to the environment occurs in children.
“Climate change is here and we cannot risk our chance with an unfit delegation head.”
Doctors on Climate Change
Meanwhile, the Philippine College of Physicians (PCP)-Southern Luzon chapter expressed support to the Prescription for Healthy Hospitals, an initiative of HCWH which aims to reduce the health sector’s climate footprint.
PCP is the umbrella organization of internists in the Philippines.
HCWH is an international coalition of more than 470 organizations in 52 countries, working to transform the health care sector worldwide, without compromising patient safety or care, so that it is ecologically sustainable and no longer a source of harm to public health and the environment. For more information on HCWH-Southeast Asia, see www.noharm.org.ph.
Sonia G. Astudillo, +63 918 9182369, sonia@hcwh.org / Merci Ferrer, + 63 920 9056113, merci@hcwh.org
Notes:
(1) Impounded health budget includes P100 million for the purchase of autoclave machines for infectious medical waste treatment, P400 million for tuberculosis program and P1.82 billion for family health.
(2) Signatories include public health specialist and Executive Director of Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR)-Kenya Dr. Paul Saoke and PSR-San Francisco Bay Area President Dr Robert M. Gould, Institute for Zero Waste in Africa- South Africa National Coordinator Muna Lakhani, Desmond D’Sa of the South Durban Community Environmental Alliance in South Africa, Rico Euripidou of groundwork-Friends of the Earth-Africa, Uganda Network on Toxic Free Malaria Control Sec-Gen Ellady Muyambi and Pro-biodiversity Conservationist in Uganda Coordinator Robert Tumwesigye Baganda, Director of Centro de Analisis y Accion en Toxicos y sus Alternativas (CAATA) in Mexico Fernando G. Bejarano, Cecilia Allen of Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives-Latin America, Institute for Sustainable Future-US Executive Director Jamie Harvie and Green Guide for Health Care’s Janet Brown, Center for Public Health and Environmental Development-Nepal Executive Director Ram Charita Sah, Aquene Freechild of the International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal, and HCWH Boston Regional Director Bill Ravensi, HCWH Co Executive Director Anna Gillmore-Hall and HCWH International Team Coordinator Josh Karliner.
(3) Global Temperature Change,”by James Hansen et al, PNAS 2006 103: 14288-14293.
(4) a) Inter-annual variations in climatic and environmental conditions in Austria affect outbreaks of Ross River virus disease. (b) Increase in malaria in the eastern African highlands is associated with local warming. (c) Tick-borne encephalitis in Sweden has reportedly increased in response to succession of warmer winters over two decades. (d) Changes in the intensity of the El Nino cycle and its frequency have been accompanied by a strengthening of the relation between the cycle and cholera outbreaks in Bangladesh. (e) Studies in South Asia and South America documented the association of malaria outbreaks with the ENSO cycle.
PGMA UNFIT FOR CLIMATE TALKS
As countries prepare for the Conference of Parties (COP) 15 under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), an international organization was aghast to know that no less than President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo (PGMA) will be heading the Philippine delegation in Copenhagen on December 7 to 18.
“How can PGMA head the Philippine delegation?” asked Merci Ferrer, Executive Director of Health Care Without Harm-Southeast Asia (HCWH). “And how can she negotiate for our future when she in fact is guilty of adding up to the burgeoning problems of climate change by impounding billions of meritorious health allocations?”
In 2008 alone, P2.32 billion health allocations from the General Appropriations Act (1) remain unreleased by the government. Earlier in a petition addressed to PGMA, 1,200 individuals and organizations from Argentina, India, Kenya, other Latin American countries, Mexico, Nepal, South Africa, Uganda, and United States (2) demanded the release of these appropriations.
“Public health issue has been a missing link in this climate change debate. Leaders around the world, for years, talk about the damage to agriculture, infrastructure, food security and economic activities but fail to look at the effect to people’s health,” said Ferrer. “It is only now that we are recognizing the health risks posed by global climate change.”
The Lancet, one of the world’s best-known and most respected general medical journals, reported that climate change is the biggest global health threat of the 21st century.
“Unfortunately, PGMA is not one of those enlightened leaders who see the connection as evidenced in the wanton impoundment of budget for both health and the environment.”
Health and Climate
“The connection is very clear,” Ferrer pointed out.
Reports say that the world is the warmest it has been in the last 12,000 years as a result of warming over the past 30 years. (3) The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) predicts a 1.4 0 C to 5.8 0 C rise in temperature by 2100.
“Global warming causes drought, famine, extreme temperature, floods… in different parts of the globe. We need not look far to see the health risks brought by the typhoons Ondoy and Pepeng,” Ferrer pointed out.
In the Asia-Pacific region, El Nino and La Nina events have affected the occurrence of dengue fever outbreaks. Countless examples show the emergence and recurrence of diseases brought by climate change. (4)
Dhaka, Manila and Jakarta were named by the World Wide Fund for Nature as the Asian cities most vulnerable to climate change.
Children at risk
Children are again at risk in this climate change issue.
The World Health Organization (WHO) reports startling effects to children’s health. According to the report, over 5 million children per year die from illnesses and other conditions caused by the environment in which they live, learn and play. While around 2 million children under five die every year from acute respiratory infections. The infections are aggravated by environment hazards such as indoor air pollution.
United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) said that two thirds of all preventable ill health due to the environment occurs in children.
“Climate change is here and we cannot risk our chance with an unfit delegation head.”
Doctors on Climate Change
Meanwhile, the Philippine College of Physicians (PCP)-Southern Luzon chapter expressed support to the Prescription for Healthy Hospitals, an initiative of HCWH which aims to reduce the health sector’s climate footprint.
PCP is the umbrella organization of internists in the Philippines.
HCWH is an international coalition of more than 470 organizations in 52 countries, working to transform the health care sector worldwide, without compromising patient safety or care, so that it is ecologically sustainable and no longer a source of harm to public health and the environment. For more information on HCWH-Southeast Asia, see www.noharm.org.ph.
Sonia G. Astudillo, +63 918 9182369, sonia@hcwh.org / Merci Ferrer, + 63 920 9056113, merci@hcwh.org
Notes:
(1) Impounded health budget includes P100 million for the purchase of autoclave machines for infectious medical waste treatment, P400 million for tuberculosis program and P1.82 billion for family health.
(2) Signatories include public health specialist and Executive Director of Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR)-Kenya Dr. Paul Saoke and PSR-San Francisco Bay Area President Dr Robert M. Gould, Institute for Zero Waste in Africa- South Africa National Coordinator Muna Lakhani, Desmond D’Sa of the South Durban Community Environmental Alliance in South Africa, Rico Euripidou of groundwork-Friends of the Earth-Africa, Uganda Network on Toxic Free Malaria Control Sec-Gen Ellady Muyambi and Pro-biodiversity Conservationist in Uganda Coordinator Robert Tumwesigye Baganda, Director of Centro de Analisis y Accion en Toxicos y sus Alternativas (CAATA) in Mexico Fernando G. Bejarano, Cecilia Allen of Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives-Latin America, Institute for Sustainable Future-US Executive Director Jamie Harvie and Green Guide for Health Care’s Janet Brown, Center for Public Health and Environmental Development-Nepal Executive Director Ram Charita Sah, Aquene Freechild of the International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal, and HCWH Boston Regional Director Bill Ravensi, HCWH Co Executive Director Anna Gillmore-Hall and HCWH International Team Coordinator Josh Karliner.
(3) Global Temperature Change,”by James Hansen et al, PNAS 2006 103: 14288-14293.
(4) a) Inter-annual variations in climatic and environmental conditions in Austria affect outbreaks of Ross River virus disease. (b) Increase in malaria in the eastern African highlands is associated with local warming. (c) Tick-borne encephalitis in Sweden has reportedly increased in response to succession of warmer winters over two decades. (d) Changes in the intensity of the El Nino cycle and its frequency have been accompanied by a strengthening of the relation between the cycle and cholera outbreaks in Bangladesh. (e) Studies in South Asia and South America documented the association of malaria outbreaks with the ENSO cycle.
Philippine nurses in the forefront of mercury elimination
December 2, 2009
Philippine nurses in the forefront of mercury elimination
The Occupational Health Nurses Association of the Philippines (OHNAP) recently signed the Mercury-Free Health Care Initiative, co-led by World Health Organization and Health Care Without Harm. This global initiative aims to virtually eliminate mercury-based thermometers and sphygmomanometers over the next decade and substitute them with accurate, economically viable alternatives.
OHNAP is a specialty organization of nurses employed in the different industrial, commercial, agricultural, educational and government institutions. Founded in 1950 as an Industrial Nursing Unit of the Philippine Nurses Association, OHNAP now has more than 3,000 members nationwide and an international chapter in Qatar.
OHNAP will be joining other health care facilities, medical universities, local environment and natural resources office and medical associations who have earlier pledged support to the Mercury-Free Health Care Global Initiative and the Mercury-Free Philippine Health Care by 2010 campaign. The other signatories are the Notre Dame de Chartres Hospital, Saint Louis Hospital of the Sacred Heart, Pines City Doctors Hospital, Baguio General Hospital and Fort Del Pilar Station Hospital at Philippine Military Academy all in Baguio City, General Santos Doctors Hospital in General Santos City, St Paul Hospitals in Tuguegarao City and Cavite, Northern Samar Provincial Hospital, Philippine Heart Center, Philippine Children’s Medical Center, San Lazaro Hospital, Lung Center of the Philippines, Ospital ng Maynila, Manila Adventist Medical Center and School of Medical Arts, School of Health Sciences at St Paul University in Tuguegarao City, University of the Philippines College of Dentistry, Institute of Public Health Management (IPHM), Woman Health, Northern Samar Provincial Government Environment and Natural Resources Office, the Philippine Nurses Association and the Philippine Public Health Association.
For more information on OHNAP, please visit http://ohnap.multiply.com/
Philippine nurses in the forefront of mercury elimination
The Occupational Health Nurses Association of the Philippines (OHNAP) recently signed the Mercury-Free Health Care Initiative, co-led by World Health Organization and Health Care Without Harm. This global initiative aims to virtually eliminate mercury-based thermometers and sphygmomanometers over the next decade and substitute them with accurate, economically viable alternatives.
OHNAP is a specialty organization of nurses employed in the different industrial, commercial, agricultural, educational and government institutions. Founded in 1950 as an Industrial Nursing Unit of the Philippine Nurses Association, OHNAP now has more than 3,000 members nationwide and an international chapter in Qatar.
OHNAP will be joining other health care facilities, medical universities, local environment and natural resources office and medical associations who have earlier pledged support to the Mercury-Free Health Care Global Initiative and the Mercury-Free Philippine Health Care by 2010 campaign. The other signatories are the Notre Dame de Chartres Hospital, Saint Louis Hospital of the Sacred Heart, Pines City Doctors Hospital, Baguio General Hospital and Fort Del Pilar Station Hospital at Philippine Military Academy all in Baguio City, General Santos Doctors Hospital in General Santos City, St Paul Hospitals in Tuguegarao City and Cavite, Northern Samar Provincial Hospital, Philippine Heart Center, Philippine Children’s Medical Center, San Lazaro Hospital, Lung Center of the Philippines, Ospital ng Maynila, Manila Adventist Medical Center and School of Medical Arts, School of Health Sciences at St Paul University in Tuguegarao City, University of the Philippines College of Dentistry, Institute of Public Health Management (IPHM), Woman Health, Northern Samar Provincial Government Environment and Natural Resources Office, the Philippine Nurses Association and the Philippine Public Health Association.
For more information on OHNAP, please visit http://ohnap.multiply.com/
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS DEMAND PGMA TO RELEASE IMPOUNDED HEALTH BUDGET
December 1, 2009
INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS DEMAND PGMA TO RELEASE IMPOUNDED HEALTH BUDGET
International organizations and individuals from ten countries joined local health budget advocates in calling for President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo (PGMA) to release the 2008 impounded health budget.
In a petition addressed to PGMA, 1,200 individuals and organizations from Argentina, India, Kenya, other Latin American countries, Mexico, Nepal, South Africa, Uganda, and United States (1) demanded the release of appropriations made in the 2008 national budget for the Department of Health (DOH). This includes P100 million for the purchase of autoclave machines for infectious medical waste treatment, P400 million for tuberculosis program and P1.82 billion for family health.
“These are meritorious allocations approved by Congress and will surely redound to the benefit of the people,” said the petitioners. “When the current dark cloud that hangs on every country’s economy is gone, there is no surer way to seize the opportunities of an economic upswing than by ensuring now that the Philippines is contributing to strong and healthy nations.”
“Amidst warnings of a reenacted 2010 budget, we are hopeful that the impounded 2008 budget will still be released,” said Merci Ferrer, Executive Director of Health Care Without Harm-Southeast Asia (HCWH-SEA), an active member of the Alternative Budget Initiative (ABI)-health cluster.
“The support of international organizations shows that we are fighting for important budget allocations. Public health must always be of outmost concern to our government,” said Ferrer. “We have seen the public health damage brought by the typhoons that visited the country. We do not want to be caught unprepared when climate change brings in more public health chaos,” she added.
In the Philippines, petitioners include Social Watch-Philippines (SWP), ABI, and HCWH-SEA and several non-government organizations and health care facilities (2) from different parts of the country.
“While everyone is busy thinking 2010 election, we urge PGMA to look at the budget and give the health sector what is due.”
Meanwhile, former national treasurer Leonor Magtolis Briones, lead convenor of SWP which organized the ABI, said that PGMA has been impounding funds since 2008 when she introduced the notion of a conditional veto.
“SWP and ABI members were appalled when PGMA, in her veto message on the budget in 2008, said that any realignment proposed by legislature will have to be approved by her for release. This debilitated the power of the purse of the Senate and House of Representatives. Increases in the allocations for critical socioeconomic services such as health, education, agriculture and environment which were included in the GAA through the initiative of the legislature are not being released,” Briones said. “The problem is both Houses agreed to this conditional veto of the President,” she added.
“PGMA combined this with orders which allowed her to impound certain budget items and move them to her discretion. This is a combination of savings, impoundment and conditional veto. Since 2008, the President always intervenes with the release of the funds and has been transferring funds to various departments and bodies which are not part of the executive,” said Briones who is also an ambassador of the W8, a group of eight women representing civil society coalitions in eight countries engaging international leaders for better quality of health and education services.
She noted that the Overall Savings of P140 billion, as recorded in the 2010 National Expenditure Program (NEP), represent impoundment of unreleased appropriations.
“Officials of various implementing agencies already attested that the overall savings being reported by the Department of Budget Management (DBM) are actually unreleased appropriations. Also, the departments were not given the opportunity to generate savings from these appropriations,” she said.
“The record on Overall savings in the NEP 2010 contains transfers to and from bodies such as the Commission on Audit (COA), Commission on Elections (COMELEC), Commission on Human Rights (CHR), Congress, the Judiciary, and Office of the Ombudsman, which should have been off limits to the President’s prerogative,” Briones added.
ABI has been calling on legislators to immediately issue provisions against the impoundment of funds by the executive. The group also called on the DBM to provide proper documentation of fund transfers from one government agency to another. The Commission on Audit (COA) already complained that the “DBM could not provide the appropriate documentation where the savings came from or the agency whose funds/savings where transferred to another agency.”
Organized by Social Watch Philippines, ABI is a consortium of 60 non-government organizations that has been actively engaging the government in the budget process for the past six years. It is calling for increased allocation in the budget, specifically for education, health, agriculture and environment sectors.
HCWH is an international coalition of more than 470 organizations in 52 countries, working to transform the health care sector worldwide, without compromising patient safety or care, so that it is ecologically sustainable and no longer a source of harm to public health and the environment. For more information on HCWH-Southeast Asia, see www.noharm.org.ph.
Sonia G. Astudillo, +63 918 9182369, sonia@hcwh.org / Merci Ferrer, + 63 920 9056113, merci@hcwh.org
1 Signatories include public health specialist and Executive Director of Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR)-Kenya Dr. Paul Saoke and PSR-San Francisco Bay Area President Dr Robert M. Gould, Institute for Zero Waste in Africa- South Africa National Coordinator Muna Lakhani, Desmond D’Sa of the South Durban Community Environmental Alliance in South Africa, Rico Euripidou of groundwork-Friends of the Earth-Africa, Uganda Network on Toxic Free Malaria Control Sec-Gen Ellady Muyambi and Pro-biodiversity Conservationist in Uganda Coordinator Robert Tumwesigye Baganda, Director of Centro de Analisis y Accion en Toxicos y sus Alternativas (CAATA) in Mexico Fernando G. Bejarano, Cecilia Allen of Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives-Latin America, Institute for Sustainable Future-US Executive Director Jamie Harvie and Green Guide for Health Care’s Janet Brown, Center for Public Health and Environmental Development-Nepal Executive Director Ram Charita Sah, Aquene Freechild of the International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal, and HCWH Boston Regional Director Bill Ravensi, HCWH Co Executive Director Anna Gillmore-Hall and HCWH International Team Coordinator Josh Karliner.
2 Philippine signatories include: Global Call to Action Against Poverty (GCAP)-Philippines, Action for Economic Reform, La Liga Policy Institute, Kilusan Kontra Kurapsyon-PUP, Initiatives for International Dialogue, Columban Missionaries – Justice. Peace & Integrity of Creation Ministry (JPIC), Philippine Human Rights Information Center, UE Kapit Bisig Alumna Association, Public Services Labor Independent Confederation (PSLINK), Freedom from Debt Coalition-Iloilo Chapter, Philippine Rural Reconstruction Movement, Panay Rural Dev't Center, Inc., WomanHealth Philippines, Piglas Kababaihan/Woman Health Phils, Ang Nars, Philippine Nurses Association, Department of Health-Autonomous Region for Muslim Mindanao, DoH-CHD-Zamboanga Peninsula, RHU-Monreal Masbate, DoH-CHD Bicol, Legaspi City, DoH-CHD Eastern Visayas, CHD-5, Sorsogon Provincial Health Office, CHD-2, Tuguegarao, DoH-10 Cagayan de Oro, (PRDCI), Philippine Network on Climate Change, Cycling Advocates (CyCad), Earthsavers Movement, NGOs for Integrated Protected Areas, Partido Kalikasan Institute (PKI), Sagip Sierra Madre Environmental Society, Inc. (SSMESI), Provincial Government Environment and Natural Resources Office-Northern Samar.
INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS DEMAND PGMA TO RELEASE IMPOUNDED HEALTH BUDGET
International organizations and individuals from ten countries joined local health budget advocates in calling for President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo (PGMA) to release the 2008 impounded health budget.
In a petition addressed to PGMA, 1,200 individuals and organizations from Argentina, India, Kenya, other Latin American countries, Mexico, Nepal, South Africa, Uganda, and United States (1) demanded the release of appropriations made in the 2008 national budget for the Department of Health (DOH). This includes P100 million for the purchase of autoclave machines for infectious medical waste treatment, P400 million for tuberculosis program and P1.82 billion for family health.
“These are meritorious allocations approved by Congress and will surely redound to the benefit of the people,” said the petitioners. “When the current dark cloud that hangs on every country’s economy is gone, there is no surer way to seize the opportunities of an economic upswing than by ensuring now that the Philippines is contributing to strong and healthy nations.”
“Amidst warnings of a reenacted 2010 budget, we are hopeful that the impounded 2008 budget will still be released,” said Merci Ferrer, Executive Director of Health Care Without Harm-Southeast Asia (HCWH-SEA), an active member of the Alternative Budget Initiative (ABI)-health cluster.
“The support of international organizations shows that we are fighting for important budget allocations. Public health must always be of outmost concern to our government,” said Ferrer. “We have seen the public health damage brought by the typhoons that visited the country. We do not want to be caught unprepared when climate change brings in more public health chaos,” she added.
In the Philippines, petitioners include Social Watch-Philippines (SWP), ABI, and HCWH-SEA and several non-government organizations and health care facilities (2) from different parts of the country.
“While everyone is busy thinking 2010 election, we urge PGMA to look at the budget and give the health sector what is due.”
Meanwhile, former national treasurer Leonor Magtolis Briones, lead convenor of SWP which organized the ABI, said that PGMA has been impounding funds since 2008 when she introduced the notion of a conditional veto.
“SWP and ABI members were appalled when PGMA, in her veto message on the budget in 2008, said that any realignment proposed by legislature will have to be approved by her for release. This debilitated the power of the purse of the Senate and House of Representatives. Increases in the allocations for critical socioeconomic services such as health, education, agriculture and environment which were included in the GAA through the initiative of the legislature are not being released,” Briones said. “The problem is both Houses agreed to this conditional veto of the President,” she added.
“PGMA combined this with orders which allowed her to impound certain budget items and move them to her discretion. This is a combination of savings, impoundment and conditional veto. Since 2008, the President always intervenes with the release of the funds and has been transferring funds to various departments and bodies which are not part of the executive,” said Briones who is also an ambassador of the W8, a group of eight women representing civil society coalitions in eight countries engaging international leaders for better quality of health and education services.
She noted that the Overall Savings of P140 billion, as recorded in the 2010 National Expenditure Program (NEP), represent impoundment of unreleased appropriations.
“Officials of various implementing agencies already attested that the overall savings being reported by the Department of Budget Management (DBM) are actually unreleased appropriations. Also, the departments were not given the opportunity to generate savings from these appropriations,” she said.
“The record on Overall savings in the NEP 2010 contains transfers to and from bodies such as the Commission on Audit (COA), Commission on Elections (COMELEC), Commission on Human Rights (CHR), Congress, the Judiciary, and Office of the Ombudsman, which should have been off limits to the President’s prerogative,” Briones added.
ABI has been calling on legislators to immediately issue provisions against the impoundment of funds by the executive. The group also called on the DBM to provide proper documentation of fund transfers from one government agency to another. The Commission on Audit (COA) already complained that the “DBM could not provide the appropriate documentation where the savings came from or the agency whose funds/savings where transferred to another agency.”
Organized by Social Watch Philippines, ABI is a consortium of 60 non-government organizations that has been actively engaging the government in the budget process for the past six years. It is calling for increased allocation in the budget, specifically for education, health, agriculture and environment sectors.
HCWH is an international coalition of more than 470 organizations in 52 countries, working to transform the health care sector worldwide, without compromising patient safety or care, so that it is ecologically sustainable and no longer a source of harm to public health and the environment. For more information on HCWH-Southeast Asia, see www.noharm.org.ph.
Sonia G. Astudillo, +63 918 9182369, sonia@hcwh.org / Merci Ferrer, + 63 920 9056113, merci@hcwh.org
1 Signatories include public health specialist and Executive Director of Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR)-Kenya Dr. Paul Saoke and PSR-San Francisco Bay Area President Dr Robert M. Gould, Institute for Zero Waste in Africa- South Africa National Coordinator Muna Lakhani, Desmond D’Sa of the South Durban Community Environmental Alliance in South Africa, Rico Euripidou of groundwork-Friends of the Earth-Africa, Uganda Network on Toxic Free Malaria Control Sec-Gen Ellady Muyambi and Pro-biodiversity Conservationist in Uganda Coordinator Robert Tumwesigye Baganda, Director of Centro de Analisis y Accion en Toxicos y sus Alternativas (CAATA) in Mexico Fernando G. Bejarano, Cecilia Allen of Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives-Latin America, Institute for Sustainable Future-US Executive Director Jamie Harvie and Green Guide for Health Care’s Janet Brown, Center for Public Health and Environmental Development-Nepal Executive Director Ram Charita Sah, Aquene Freechild of the International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal, and HCWH Boston Regional Director Bill Ravensi, HCWH Co Executive Director Anna Gillmore-Hall and HCWH International Team Coordinator Josh Karliner.
2 Philippine signatories include: Global Call to Action Against Poverty (GCAP)-Philippines, Action for Economic Reform, La Liga Policy Institute, Kilusan Kontra Kurapsyon-PUP, Initiatives for International Dialogue, Columban Missionaries – Justice. Peace & Integrity of Creation Ministry (JPIC), Philippine Human Rights Information Center, UE Kapit Bisig Alumna Association, Public Services Labor Independent Confederation (PSLINK), Freedom from Debt Coalition-Iloilo Chapter, Philippine Rural Reconstruction Movement, Panay Rural Dev't Center, Inc., WomanHealth Philippines, Piglas Kababaihan/Woman Health Phils, Ang Nars, Philippine Nurses Association, Department of Health-Autonomous Region for Muslim Mindanao, DoH-CHD-Zamboanga Peninsula, RHU-Monreal Masbate, DoH-CHD Bicol, Legaspi City, DoH-CHD Eastern Visayas, CHD-5, Sorsogon Provincial Health Office, CHD-2, Tuguegarao, DoH-10 Cagayan de Oro, (PRDCI), Philippine Network on Climate Change, Cycling Advocates (CyCad), Earthsavers Movement, NGOs for Integrated Protected Areas, Partido Kalikasan Institute (PKI), Sagip Sierra Madre Environmental Society, Inc. (SSMESI), Provincial Government Environment and Natural Resources Office-Northern Samar.
REENACTED BUDGET: BAD, DANGEROUS, ANOMALOUS
November 27, 2009
REENACTED BUDGET: BAD, DANGEROUS, ANOMALOUS
Health Care Without Harm-Southeast Asia (HCWH-SEA), a member of the Alternative Budget Initiative (ABI) echoes earlier call by Social Watch to lawmakers to enact the 2010 budget before they go on holiday break.
According to Merci Ferrer, HCWH-SEA Executive Director, a reenacted budget for an election year is “not only bad and dangerous but also anomalous.”
“We call on the lawmakers not to loose sight that they have to urgently enact the 2010 budget. This is their duty and perhaps one of the best Christmas gifts they could offer to the Filipinos,” said Ferrer.
HCWH-SEA and ABI-health cluster are also urging the lawmakers to give serious consideration to ABI’s proposed 2010 alternative budget for education, health, agriculture and environment and the unreleased budget.
“Once and for all, let us make this right. The past years, several items in the health budget alone are still unreleased,” said Ferrer referring to the 2008 “impounded” health budget of P100 M for the purchase of autoclave machines for infectious medical waste treatment, P400 M for TB program and P1.82 B for family health and the still unreleased P13.2 M for non-mercury thermometers from the 2009 budget.
“We do hope that the government will not get away perpetually impounding these very important public health allocations. If they do, then we can only expect the worst with a reenacted 2010 budget.”
ABI is a consortium of 60 non-government organizations that has been actively engaging the government in the budget process for the past six years.
HCWH is an international coalition of more than 470 organizations in 52 countries, working to transform the health care sector worldwide, without compromising patient safety or care, so that it is ecologically sustainable and no longer a source of harm to public health and the environment. For more information on HCWH-Southeast Asia, see www.noharm.org.ph.
Sonia G. Astudillo, Communications Officer, +63 918 9182369, sonia@hcwh.org
Merci Ferrer, Executive Director, + 63 920 9056113, merci@hcwh.org
REENACTED BUDGET: BAD, DANGEROUS, ANOMALOUS
Health Care Without Harm-Southeast Asia (HCWH-SEA), a member of the Alternative Budget Initiative (ABI) echoes earlier call by Social Watch to lawmakers to enact the 2010 budget before they go on holiday break.
According to Merci Ferrer, HCWH-SEA Executive Director, a reenacted budget for an election year is “not only bad and dangerous but also anomalous.”
“We call on the lawmakers not to loose sight that they have to urgently enact the 2010 budget. This is their duty and perhaps one of the best Christmas gifts they could offer to the Filipinos,” said Ferrer.
HCWH-SEA and ABI-health cluster are also urging the lawmakers to give serious consideration to ABI’s proposed 2010 alternative budget for education, health, agriculture and environment and the unreleased budget.
“Once and for all, let us make this right. The past years, several items in the health budget alone are still unreleased,” said Ferrer referring to the 2008 “impounded” health budget of P100 M for the purchase of autoclave machines for infectious medical waste treatment, P400 M for TB program and P1.82 B for family health and the still unreleased P13.2 M for non-mercury thermometers from the 2009 budget.
“We do hope that the government will not get away perpetually impounding these very important public health allocations. If they do, then we can only expect the worst with a reenacted 2010 budget.”
ABI is a consortium of 60 non-government organizations that has been actively engaging the government in the budget process for the past six years.
HCWH is an international coalition of more than 470 organizations in 52 countries, working to transform the health care sector worldwide, without compromising patient safety or care, so that it is ecologically sustainable and no longer a source of harm to public health and the environment. For more information on HCWH-Southeast Asia, see www.noharm.org.ph.
Sonia G. Astudillo, Communications Officer, +63 918 9182369, sonia@hcwh.org
Merci Ferrer, Executive Director, + 63 920 9056113, merci@hcwh.org
GOING MERCURY-FREE, ONE STEP AT A TIME
November 18, 2009
Contact:
Sonia G. Astudillo, Communications Officer, +63 918 9182369, sonia@hcwh.org
Faye Ferrer, Program Officer for Mercury, +63 920 9327151; faye@hcwh.org
GOING MERCURY-FREE, ONE STEP AT A TIME
Puerto Princesa City – “With more than 20 medicare, district, municipal and private hospitals and rural health units in the whole of Palawan, phasing out of mercury in this province alone would translate to 1.4% phase-out in the 1,847 hospitals in the whole country. One province, 1% is a tremendous leap towards our 2010 goal of mercury-free health care,” said Faye Ferrer, Health Care Without Harm-Southeast Asia (HCWH-SEA) Program Officer for Mercury.
To date, more than 50 hospitals in the country have phased-out or are phasing-out mercury devices in their facilities.
In September 2008, the Department of Health signed Administrative Order 21 mandating the gradual phase-out of all mercury-containing devices in all Philippine health care facilities and institutions by 2010.
AO 21 requires all hospitals to immediately discontinue the distribution of mercury thermometers in the patients’ admission/discharge kits and to follow the guidelines for the gradual phase-out of mercury. Another provision is the requirement to all new health care facilities applying for a license to operate to submit an inventory of all mercury-containing devices that will be used in their facilities and a corresponding elimination program.
Finding alternatives
According to Ester Borja, chairperson of the Waste Management Committee of the Philippine Heart Center, “the moment we heard of the dangers of mercury, we immediately processed the gradual phasing-out of mercury—made an audit of existing mercurial thermometers and blood pressure device and then sent a letter to the Director for approval to replace these with safer mercury-free alternatives.”
PHC then called on suppliers to provide information on alternatives to mercury devices, conducted a series of tests to know which the best alternative is. Alternatives are widely available in the market.
Although initially faced with issues on patients’ response to alternatives, accuracy, affordability and disposal of phased-out devices, “patient safety became the driving force for PHC.”
“Considering the hazards to patients, hospital staff and the environment, we support the DoH in phasing out mercury in hospitals,” Borja added.
Ferrer added that such a move will also be easier now that the national budget (2009) provides for a Php13.2 million allocation for the purchase of mercury-free thermometers in 66 government hospitals. This however is still unreleased.
PhilHealth is likewise showing support through the new Benchbook which will contain provisions of the AO as one of the requirements to get PhilHealth accreditation.
Another challenge
Another issue that never seems to find an immediate solution is finding a disposal area to the phased-out mercury devices. “Intermediate disposal on a regional scale is ideal,” Ferrer pointed out.
HCWH-SEA and other groups are calling on the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) to provide a temporary storage area for the mercury wastes. “We cannot leave hospitals to clean-up all the mercury mess alone.”
“Although several hospitals have phased-out mercury and have in their facility a temporary storage, disposal issue remains frustratingly unaddressed,” she pointed out.
She added however that it must not discourage hospitals from phasing-out mercury. “Everyone must play their part. While one sector is looking for a disposal area, the hospital sector must be busy phasing-out mercury and finding alternatives. We hope that in 2010, all Philippine hospitals will be mercury-free and we will have a final resting place for mercury.”
Health Care Without Harm-Southeast Asia is part of an international coalition of more than 470 organizations in 52 countries, working to transform the health care sector worldwide, without compromising patient safety or care, so that it is ecologically sustainable and no longer a source of harm to public health and the environment. For more information, please visit www.noharm.org.ph
Additional Notes:
Dangers of Mercury: Mercury inhaled as vapor and absorbed through the lungs may cause tremors, emotional changes (mood swings, irritability, nervousness, excessive shyness), insomnia, neuromuscular changes (weakness, muscle atrophy, twitching), headaches, disturbances in sensations, changes in nerve responses, performance deficits on tests of cognitive function. Higher exposure may cause kidney defects, respiratory failure and death.
World Health Organization (WHO) reported as early as 1991 that a safe level of mercury exposure, below which there is no adverse effects, has never been established. In a policy paper they issued, it presented 3-pronged short, medium and long-term measures that include (a) development and implementation of plans to reduce the use of mercury equipment and replace it with alternatives, (b) increase efforts to reduce the risk of unnecessary mercury equipment in hospitals and (c) a ban of mercury-containing devices and promotion of alternatives.
The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), on the other hand, formulated a Mercury Program designed to raise awareness of the global environmental hazards of mercury after its Governing Council concluded that there is sufficient evidence of significant global adverse impacts from mercury to warrant further international action.
Contact:
Sonia G. Astudillo, Communications Officer, +63 918 9182369, sonia@hcwh.org
Faye Ferrer, Program Officer for Mercury, +63 920 9327151; faye@hcwh.org
GOING MERCURY-FREE, ONE STEP AT A TIME
Puerto Princesa City – “With more than 20 medicare, district, municipal and private hospitals and rural health units in the whole of Palawan, phasing out of mercury in this province alone would translate to 1.4% phase-out in the 1,847 hospitals in the whole country. One province, 1% is a tremendous leap towards our 2010 goal of mercury-free health care,” said Faye Ferrer, Health Care Without Harm-Southeast Asia (HCWH-SEA) Program Officer for Mercury.
To date, more than 50 hospitals in the country have phased-out or are phasing-out mercury devices in their facilities.
In September 2008, the Department of Health signed Administrative Order 21 mandating the gradual phase-out of all mercury-containing devices in all Philippine health care facilities and institutions by 2010.
AO 21 requires all hospitals to immediately discontinue the distribution of mercury thermometers in the patients’ admission/discharge kits and to follow the guidelines for the gradual phase-out of mercury. Another provision is the requirement to all new health care facilities applying for a license to operate to submit an inventory of all mercury-containing devices that will be used in their facilities and a corresponding elimination program.
Finding alternatives
According to Ester Borja, chairperson of the Waste Management Committee of the Philippine Heart Center, “the moment we heard of the dangers of mercury, we immediately processed the gradual phasing-out of mercury—made an audit of existing mercurial thermometers and blood pressure device and then sent a letter to the Director for approval to replace these with safer mercury-free alternatives.”
PHC then called on suppliers to provide information on alternatives to mercury devices, conducted a series of tests to know which the best alternative is. Alternatives are widely available in the market.
Although initially faced with issues on patients’ response to alternatives, accuracy, affordability and disposal of phased-out devices, “patient safety became the driving force for PHC.”
“Considering the hazards to patients, hospital staff and the environment, we support the DoH in phasing out mercury in hospitals,” Borja added.
Ferrer added that such a move will also be easier now that the national budget (2009) provides for a Php13.2 million allocation for the purchase of mercury-free thermometers in 66 government hospitals. This however is still unreleased.
PhilHealth is likewise showing support through the new Benchbook which will contain provisions of the AO as one of the requirements to get PhilHealth accreditation.
Another challenge
Another issue that never seems to find an immediate solution is finding a disposal area to the phased-out mercury devices. “Intermediate disposal on a regional scale is ideal,” Ferrer pointed out.
HCWH-SEA and other groups are calling on the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) to provide a temporary storage area for the mercury wastes. “We cannot leave hospitals to clean-up all the mercury mess alone.”
“Although several hospitals have phased-out mercury and have in their facility a temporary storage, disposal issue remains frustratingly unaddressed,” she pointed out.
She added however that it must not discourage hospitals from phasing-out mercury. “Everyone must play their part. While one sector is looking for a disposal area, the hospital sector must be busy phasing-out mercury and finding alternatives. We hope that in 2010, all Philippine hospitals will be mercury-free and we will have a final resting place for mercury.”
Health Care Without Harm-Southeast Asia is part of an international coalition of more than 470 organizations in 52 countries, working to transform the health care sector worldwide, without compromising patient safety or care, so that it is ecologically sustainable and no longer a source of harm to public health and the environment. For more information, please visit www.noharm.org.ph
Additional Notes:
Dangers of Mercury: Mercury inhaled as vapor and absorbed through the lungs may cause tremors, emotional changes (mood swings, irritability, nervousness, excessive shyness), insomnia, neuromuscular changes (weakness, muscle atrophy, twitching), headaches, disturbances in sensations, changes in nerve responses, performance deficits on tests of cognitive function. Higher exposure may cause kidney defects, respiratory failure and death.
World Health Organization (WHO) reported as early as 1991 that a safe level of mercury exposure, below which there is no adverse effects, has never been established. In a policy paper they issued, it presented 3-pronged short, medium and long-term measures that include (a) development and implementation of plans to reduce the use of mercury equipment and replace it with alternatives, (b) increase efforts to reduce the risk of unnecessary mercury equipment in hospitals and (c) a ban of mercury-containing devices and promotion of alternatives.
The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), on the other hand, formulated a Mercury Program designed to raise awareness of the global environmental hazards of mercury after its Governing Council concluded that there is sufficient evidence of significant global adverse impacts from mercury to warrant further international action.
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