Hontiveros flags P2-B budget cut in over 30 public hospitals nationwide

Senator Risa Hontiveros on Thursday raised concern over the P2.04 billion budget cut among public hospitals in the Philippines next year despite the COVID-19 pandemic.

Hontiveros said the amount is equivalent to the reductions made in the allocation for the maintenance and other operating expenses (MOOE) compared to the original budget request for 2021. This fund was supposed to cover utilities, medicine, diagnostic procedures, IV fluids and other spending essential to patient care.

“Billions worth of cuts in the middle of a pandemic means we drastically slashed the capacity of government hospitals to provide services and medicines for free. Dahil dito, aakyat pa ang out-of-pocket expenses ng mga tao. This is grossly anti-poor and anti-people,” the opposition senator said in a statement.

List of government hospitals that suffered from budget cuts. Amounts were computed by comparing the original budget request of the DOH and the DBM-approved budget that is stated in the NEP for 2021.Table courtesy of Office of Senator Risa Hontiveros.

Of the over 30 national and regional hospitals that have seen a decrease in operational budget allocations in the National Expenditure Program for 2021, the three hardest hit were all major COVID-19 referral centers:

• Quirino Memorial Medical Center (QMMC) in Quezon City - P305.48 million
• Southern Philippines Medical Center (SPMC) in Davao  - P699.2 million
• Corazon Locsin Montelibano Memorial Hospital (CLMMH) in Bacolod City - P242.19 million

Hontiveros stressed that QMMC has the highest number of admitted COVID-19 cases in the Philippines and is currently at the "warning level" status with 67.2% bed occupancy.

SPMC is currently at full capacity for novel coronavirus patients while CLMMH is a major COVID-19 testing center in the area, she added.

The senator lamented that despite these facts, the operational budget of these government hospitals for 2021 were still significantly slashed.

“Most of these hospitals are in emerging, if not current, hotspot areas. Shouldn’t common sense tell us that when the threat is rising, we provide reinforcement? We don’t know when this pandemic will end, so our hospitals have to be ever-ready to deal with the influx of patients,” she said.

“The consequences could prove fatal. Many might die because they were refused care when they needed it the most. This can be prevented if we channel funds wisely,” she added.

Further, she underscored that the Department of Health's (DOH) fund for prevention and control of communicable and non-communicable diseases was also refused a “massive” P10 billion.

“Pinilay nga natin ang pondo para sa prevention, pipilayin pa natin lalo 'yung budget para sa pagpapagamot,” Hontiveros said.

The health sector’s budget should not be “business as usual” in 2021 because other diseases aside from COVID-19 will need proper attention and treatment too, she added.

The senator believes that the proposed P203.74-billion budget of the DOH for 2021 must be increased by P48.7 billion more as the country transitions to the new normal.

“Our current budget pretends that we aren’t in the biggest health crisis of our lifetimes," she said.

The House-approved P4.5-trillion national budget for 2021 is expected to be transmitted to the Senate on October 28. The senators target to start the plenary debates on the budget as soon as they resume session on November 9. — RSJ, GMA News