Dangers of Free Medical Education

ROCHEL M. FLORON IV

IN THE RECENTLY HELD university town hall meeting, UP Manila (UPM) Chancellor Dr. Carmencita Padilla and UP College of Medicine (UPCM) Dean Charlotte Chiong revealed that the government adopted the existing Return Service Agreement (RSA) of the university and that the university also served as a resource institution and was part of the technical committee that drafted its Implementing Rules and Regulation.

The Republic Act 11509 or Doktor Para sa Bayan Act, signed in 2021, aims to improve the doctorpatient ratio in the country, which is at 3-to-1000, by producing doctors through scholarships to be given to less fortunate students coming from provinces with a dwindling number of registered physicians. But, just like any government scholarship, a student is mandated to serve the public healthcare system for the same number of years they were under the scholarship program.

No matter how noble the reason of the government in giving out medical school scholarships, this only fails to resolve the long-standing issues of the Philippine healthcare system. This will never address the brain drain of healthcare workers in the country. Scholarships like this are only breeding sheep to be slaughtered in the future.

The pandemic has aggravated the problem of the healthcare system. In 2020, at the height of the pandemic, then-President Rodrigo Duterte banned the deployment of nurses and physicians abroad to prevent the depletion of healthcare workers in the country. Even before the pandemic, there are around 13,000 healthcare professionals who leave the country for better opportunities abroad. For a country known for its overseas workers, it is not a secret why they are seeking work abroad, it is always for higher wages and better working conditions. Remember when Dr. Maria Theresa Cruz, a doctor who died of COVID-19 while courageously serving Cainta Municipal Hospital, was paid by the government Php 60.93 per day as her hazard pay. Remember when a photo circulated online captured healthcare workers of Philippine General Hospital (PGH) in Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) sleeping on the ground. And just recently, PGH, the largest tertiary and highly specialized hospital, and a COVID-19 referral hospital was slapped with a Php 800 million budget cut despite calls for a higher budget.

All these are happening to our healthcare workers while the underperforming Philippine president is sleeping comfortably in his bed not worrying that his office will run out of money to be used for extravagance and his lap dogs.

Meanwhile, the RSA has always been paraded to be a way to instill nationalism in students who will eventually become community healthcare workers. It is always the narrative of the UP Manila administration on why they still have not scrapped or even revisited the agreement despite the long history of resistance by the UPM community. Subjecting students to stricter standards would only pressure them to comply with requirements and might eventually start to be indifferent towards the profession. Imagine having to work hard for a profession that would only pay you an amount way lower than underperforming politicians.

‘‘It is always the narrative of the UP Manila administration on why they still have not scrapped or even revisited the agreement despite the long history of resistance by the UPM community. Subjecting students to stricter standards would only pressure them to comply with requirements and might eventually start to be indifferent towards the profession.

Serving the people must not be forced down the students’ throats, it should be inculcated through community immersion; it is exposing the students to the ills of healthcare in communities which the spirit of serving the country may come from.

It is a no-brainer for the government to know that the problem of brain drain is less about accessibility to ways to become a particular professional, but is more about the treatment of these professions that made them decide to leave the country for a greener pasture. Answering the remark from the UP Manila chancellor, the healthcare workers have never perceived serving the country as a burden. It is the health system, which includes the government, which does not give justice to its workers and does not recognize the importance of ‘Health for All’ in achieving greater health outcomes for the people.▼