Health workers launch signature campaign

MANILA, Philippines - Health workers are collecting one million signatures in an attempt to encourage President Aquino to drop the privatization plans for some government hospitals.

“Once we collect all the signatures, we would be submitting them to Malacañang. We hope that they will realize that privatization - in the guise of PPP - is detrimental to poor patients,” said Alliance of Health Workers (AHW) president Jossel Ebesate, referring to the public-private partnership (PPP) programs of the government.

Ebesate reiterated that if the private sector operates government hospitals, more indigent patients would not be able to access health services.

“As it is now, a majority of us could no longer afford getting appropriate treatment. So when public hospitals are privatized, you could expect health services to be more costly,” he said.          

Health workers and their supporters will hold a nationwide rally tomorrow to press for the stoppage of the privatization project.

In Metro Manila, the protesters will start their mass action at the Department Health (DOH) central office in Sta. Cruz, Manila and would march to Malacañang to press their demand.

Earlier, Health Secretary Enrique Ona warned protesting workers against disrupting hospital operations. He said that being public servants, they would face suspension or dismissal.

Ona also denied that the government is selling government hospitals.

He said that they are just “bringing in certain practices to improve efficiency and availability of public services that otherwise will take a long time to achieve or not at all through PPP scheme.”  

DOH hospitals listed up for PPP are the Philippine Orthopedic Center in Quezon City and Research Institute for Tropical Medicines in Muntinlupa City.