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Dear Sir, If you have any way to make it to Angeles City you can check in to Medical City Clark, They take FMP and do not require you to pay anything up front!!! We have some of the best Dr’s around, Most come from Manila! All you will need to bring is your FMP letter listing your Disabilities and your Mil ID of VA card. They will file everything for you!!!

If your wife comes with you she can stay with you in the hospital as a watcher! As for food the VFW here and the Foreign Leagon have people to help out! I am 100% to but I can do my best to help. You can get a room with a ref so your wife can keep food and snacks and the nurses station has a microwave that she can use.

If you decide to come here please let me know and I will pick you up from the Airport here at Clark or you can arrange through the medical city to be picked up! Their phone # is 045-300-8888. Also here is my number 906-345-2161 Cell #. If you can send me any of your info ahead of time I can go get you pre-checked in and have the Dr’s waiting for you! My email is jdtubbs@hotmail.com.
PLEASE LET ME KNOW IF THIS IS AN OPTION FOR YOU! I HAVE PLENTY OF EXTRA SPACE IN MY HOME IF YOU NEED TO STAY AND RECOVER FOR A BIT, SORRY I DON’T HAVE AIRCON! BUT WE MAY BE ABLE TO FIND SOMETHING THAT WILL MAKE YOU MORE COMFORTABLE!

GOOD LUCK TO YOU AND MAY GOD BLESS YOU!!
John Tubbs
Ret AFSOC

 

A few more observations about my friend's experience at Silliman. (And, btw, I read about Silliman before I came to Dumaguete, how it was about the 3rd best hospital in The Philippines and how Dumagute is planned to be a Centre for Care (I think it stated for 'end of life' and I feel they will be good at that )).

Just after admission TWO nurses arrived, one with a set of bathroom scales. They measured the patient's weight. They asked her about her height as they had no measuring device - I had a tape measure in my bag and measured her. They recorded both figures. Why it took two I have no idea. About 20 minutes later another two nurses arrived and asked "What is your weight and height?" They did not even have any bathroom scales. My first time to see a hospital 'function' here and I realised it was cr*p.

I think about 20 people entered the room to check something within the first few hours and no one seemed to know about any previous visits or recordings - I mentioned the value of a chart at the bottom of the bed but it fell on deaf ears.

The hospital lacked equipment but, even if that is understandable in a developing country, they could easily improve communication.

No medical staff used gloves at any time. We had taken in our own alcohol spray and hand-sanitiser (same thing basically) and used a careful hand hygiene routine for the watchers - better than the (lack of) routine used by medical staff! My friend was offered a sponge-bath at 5 am and the nurse-aid saw gloves my friend had brought in and used them. That was the one and only attempt to avoid cross-infection during a 3-day stay.

It has been stated often that time spent in hospitals here is excessive - I think it can also be dangerous. Better to get out asap and use a very good hygiene routine at home.

 

@jim787 You mentioned that Dr. Chua (he's the guy at Holy Child?) charges a lot compared to your dentist. If the girls teeth are a complete disaster there may be a lot more work than an ordinary filling at Php 800.
I went to see him for a consultation. My dentist who will remain nameless so I don't get sued or shot pushed a dental implant up between my pallet and the sinus membrane. His idea was to pull the skin off the roof of my mouth, cut a hole through the pallet and go find the wayward implant. None of that seemed like a good idea to me so I went to see Dr. Chua. I ask him to remove the implant. He said No way. He told me to go to an implant specialist at a hospital in Cebu. When I told him my dentist wanted to perform the procedure in the chair in his office Dr. Chua turned an ashen colour. It seems that procedure needs to be performed in a sterile surgery.
My point being sometimes dental work can be more complicated than appears.

Today I finally got my dental implant procedure completed by Dr. Cordeta and am as pleased as punch. Her price was higher than the "implant specialist" in Cebu. I rejected the guy in Cebu's treatment plan because it was seriously flawed.

I'll write an explanation tomorrow complete with pictures with what I had done and more importantly WHY the treatment cost a bit more.

 

I have read the advice given to this thread. Some of it is wrong. My wife and I spent 20 years in the Philippine real estate business. We've bought and sold 87 properties. I even wrote a book about buying and selling real estate in the Philippines but I haven't published it yet. The process is filled with land mines, a million tricks and jillion lies. If any English-speaking foreigner has a problem and wants 30 minutes of free advise, I am available pool-side at Dumaguete Studio Apartments.

 

You hit the nail on the head. Its surely a way to keep hospital beds full. If it was to help cover hospital costs they wouldn't have such silly rules and simply require the attending doctors to agree with the release and home treatment which would be far cheaper. Many of these cases someone could go home in 24-48 hours and do at home medications and get better just as quick if not quicker as people are more comfortable and happier at home then in a hospital.

It doesn't pay the whole thing. Its a a partial payment with a fixed amount paid depending on the issue. You could get out with just 24 hours in and have a bill of 3-4k or stay the 4 days to get PhilHealth coverage and still pay 3-4k or a LOT more. Many of the things they do at the hospital they consider mandatory aren't needed such as IV's for everyone under the sun yet when have you seen an admitted patient not have an IV? Most issues someone can drink water just fine and often do. Add in the doctors fee's which change drastically if they consider you poor or not which could be 500p a day or 2500p a day depending on what the doctor feels like and IF you end up having a 2nd doctor specialist take a look their fee adds in as well and they love bringing in a specialist if they can find the silliest reason to.

In the end many a time going home early and forgoing Philhealth coverage can save sanity and money. It all depends on the issue and how much longer one would have to wait to qualify.

 

A skinny Pillar or perhaps known as cosmetic Pillars are not seen and usually they are half a hollow block wide and only 5 inch deep and are then like everything else in a CHB house they are frosted over with the cake icing (render) never to be seen again, they are worse than useless, if they are done the right way (but never are) they should be the whole width of a Block but still they only have sheer strength in the width and nothing in the skinny 5inch depth, 32cm pillars are the real deal if they have a mix of 4500PSI and have ratio of 140KG of steel per cubic metre of concrete, done the right way in one continuous pour! but this again is never done, usually they are poured in three sections, thus they will have cold joints between the sections, however as you say you will never know?

One very sound piece of advice I can give you though is; get the Feck out of a CHB house at the least sign of a tremor, a paid up funeral plan is not a bad idea either. Fact; in an Earthquake when people are killed, usually it is by falling Masonry.

I know it is not what you want to hear, but it is MY belief that very few houses here are built correctly and very few will stand the test of time?

 

I have been using Airlink for over a year and am very happy with it. I have a 30M package, and my speedtests show I usually get that or a little better, ranges between about 27M to 35M. Has never been effected by heavy rain.