DOH Usec: PPP funding critical to improvement of 25 gov’t hospitals

Public-Private Partnership (PPP) investments are critical to the rehabilitation and improvement of 25 ailing government-run hospitals, said an official of the Department of Health (DOH). “If the government alone were to handle the rehabilitation of these 25 hospitals, it [would] take us more than 25 years to do it due to limited funds and bureaucracy,” said DOH undersecretary Dr. Teodoro Herbosa at a British Embassy luncheon briefing on PPP projects. The government is, however, helping the process along by infusing P3 billion as counterpart funding for the initial improvement of these government hospitals to make them attractive for PPP investments. The Philippine Orthopedic Center (POC), whose medical infrastructure has been outdated for years, is one of the hospitals up for PPP investment. Herbosa, who heads the DOH Task Force for PPP and Health Facilities Enhancement Program, said that the P1.2-billion DOH Vaccine Self-Sufficiency Program is also being offered for PPP investment. To highlight key PPP investment opportunities in the Philippines, UK Trade & Investment (UKTI) is hosting a seminar mission for British investors and companies on November 8 and 9 in Manila to help them explore opportunities for PPP and infrastructure investments in the country. The mission will provide a platform for British companies engaged in PPP funding to present their areas of expertise and capabilities before an audience of government agencies, key industry players, and local suppliers and services firms that are potential partners of the British firms. According to the UKTI, the UK is cumulatively the largest investor in the Philippines for the past decade, with combined net foreign direct and net portfolio investments between 1999 and 2009 totaling $9.3 billion. According to British government officials, the UK’s PPP project investment on roads, ports, airports, rail, health, education, power, water and agriculture in the Philippines can reach £10 billion—with transport projects estimated at £2 billion and infrastructure projects at £1.3 billion prioritized for roll-out from 2012 to 2013. The British Embassy is sending Herbosa and key government experts from DOH, the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) and the Department of Finance to London from October 7 to 15 to engage with British experts on PPP projects. Herbosa also said that medical costs at these hospitals will not increase when they become semi-privatized under the PPP projects, adding that 70 percent of beds in these hospitals will be reserved for sponsored patients that include poor and lower-middle class patients whose medical costs will be subsidized by Philhealth. Among the government hospitals up for PPP investments are the Jose Reyes Memorial Hospital, Jose Fabella Hospital, San Lazaro Hospital, Quirino Hospital and National Mental Health Hospital. — BM, GMA News