FAILURE in leadership, gross mismanagement, and a disconnect between approaches and results in dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic are straining the country’s already fragile and fragmented health system.
This was the consensus of experts during a virtual forum of the Stratbase Albert Del Rosario Institute and advocacy group Universal Healthcare Watch recently.
“As the government moved towards another quarantine scheme, while the country continues to face an uptrend surge in COVID-19 cases due to the Delta variant, it is vital to provide our healthcare system with adequate resources to constantly respond to the needs of the public,” Prof. Dindo Manhit, president of Stratbase Institute, said.
“Various stakeholders can proactively collaborate in the decision-making process so that through this whole-of-society approach the country’s health systems could achieve better health outcomes with a greater sense of accountability in healthcare delivery,” Manhit said.
Manhit stressed: “We must demand complete visibility and reckoning of performance.
Disruptions brought by the pandemic is a tried excuse that we should no longer tolerate.
We need responsive performance and good governance. Filipinos do not need political rhetoric. We will not be swayed by words anymore.”
Dr. Leni Jara, executive director of the Council for Health and Development, said testing, contact tracing and treatment capability remain woefully inadequate.
“We still have a very high positivity rate, 29 percent, despite our under-testing. And yet we are already in seventh position as far as the number of cases of COVID is concerned,” Jara said.
Alvin Manalansan, co-convenor of UHC Watch, said that “the controversies manifested by alleged corruption, transparency, and negligence has damaged the image of the Department of Health and affects our fight against COVID 19.”
