⌛ Disturbing news article

Group, I was surfing the net on my day off looking for work and I came across this news article in the LA Times that i found disturbing. it was called "the overseas class" and discussed the phenomon of overseas workers from the Philippines. not that overseas workers are disturbing, but i found the comments about the hospitals in dumaugete disturbing and inaccurate. I thought others may be interested or like to comment. I have removed a doctors name from this exerpt as i'm unsure if this article is accurate or bogus.

The Overseas Class - Los Angeles Times

"The wards are overflowing at Negros Oriental Provincial Hospital, and dozens of patients lie on cots in the corridors. Some have just given birth. Others have just had surgery. Some will die in the hallway.

The hospital in Dumaguete, about 400 miles south of Manila, was built for 250 patients but usually has more than 350. Newborns stay in the same bed as their mothers; some have suffocated when their mothers rolled over in their sleep.

Patients who come here have no choice. It's the only hospital in the region they can afford. But for the doctors there is a way out: Study nursing and leave for the United States or Europe, where qualified nurses are in short supply.

Medical regulations in the U.S. and European countries typically make it very difficult for foreign doctors to work there as physicians. But nurses are in such demand that some recruiters offer bonuses of $15,000, the equivalent of three years' pay for a doctor in Dumaguete.

Of 207 doctors in Negros Oriental province, 79 have become nurses and more than 30 are in nursing school. This hospital is supposed to have 72 doctors, but only 43 remain. The Dumaguete district has closed two of its six rural hospitals and may soon have to close a third, said Dr. Ely Villapando, the province's chief health officer.

"We are worried sick about medical doctors taking up nursing and leaving," said Villapando, 63, who also runs the hospital. "We are losing the most skilled doctors. This is a crisis in healthcare."

An aid agency gave the hospital new cardiology equipment, but it sits unused. The hospital's only cardiologist left to become an emergency-room nurse in Chicago. What she earned in a month here, she can now make before lunch.

Here, patients are so poor that some pay in produce or livestock. X-rays cost a chicken. A bunch of bananas covers consultation. Delivering a baby costs one goat.

Villapando makes the equivalent of $437 a month. Two of his children have become nurses in the United States, one in Bakersfield and one in Texas. They send him money.

"My son already has a house of his own," he said. "He has two cars. My daughter is building a house and has two cars. They could not hope to achieve that here."

To become nurses, the doctors attend classes on weekends for a year and spend 2,200 hours as volunteer nurses at the hospital. Sometimes they do both jobs the same day.

"Some of the patients get confused," said Dr. XXXX XXXXXX, an internist studying to be a nurse. "They say, 'Weren't you a doctor this morning?' "

An ophthalmologist with her own practice, Dr. XXXXX XXXX XXXXX is near the top of her profession. Her father was a surgeon and a congressman. He was instrumental in building a new wing of the Dumaguete hospital. But she, too, is giving up. She is in nursing school and weighing whether it would be better to live in Tennessee or Los Angeles.

"If I go to the States, I will have to forget I am a doctor," she said as she made her nursing rounds. "I love the Philippines, but it will always be a Third World country."

 

This isn't only happening in Dumaguete Government Hospital but in my locality as well. Had a family friend Doctor who studied Nursing and is now working in America as a Nurse in the hospital. I could not blame him as he's got a family of three children who are in University and a family to feed, a family to have a comfortable life and to provide a better future. And if he stays, he is a doctor with basically no money at all or leave as a nurse, working abroad to provide his family a quality and better life..... He has a choice and chose his family first. Who would not be????

I know it is sad and disturbing but it's only the government to blame.:(

 

This is a valid concern not only for Dumaguete but throughout the Philippines. Doctors and dentists are studying to become nurses and leave the country for better pay as nurses. My niece, who is a doctor and her doctor husband became nurses and are now working in Florida. Her brother, also a doctor has just passed the nursing exam and will leave for the US soon.
There are still doctors left in Dumaguete but the waiting queue gets longer everyday especially when the doctor has to play golf before his duty. The demand is surely taxing the supply.

 

Yes, it is disturbing, but what exactly did you find inaccurate? Have you been in the provincial Hospital lately?

Larry

 

this part...
"The wards are overflowing at Negros Oriental Provincial Hospital, and dozens of patients lie on cots in the corridors. Some have just given birth. Others have just had surgery. Some will die in the hallway.

The hospital in Dumaguete, about 400 miles south of Manila, was built for 250 patients but usually has more than 350. Newborns stay in the same bed as their mothers; some have suffocated when their mothers rolled over in their sleep.

and NO i haven't been in the provincial hospital lately. i'm not implying i'm any sort of expert in provinical medicine...i just found the article disturbing. if you have any experience, maybe you could share with me so i'll be smarter than i look. thanks
ronin

 

I was in the provincial hospital visiting several times between Christmas and New Years. Although the description IS disturbing, from what I saw then, I cannot in all honesty call it "inaccurate". If you have no money, you may very well die in the hallway there from any number of reasons, lack of medication, lack of care, etc. If you're in an accident and a poor Filipino, yes, you might bleed to death in the hallway.

7 years ago my mother-in-law (whom I never met) drowned in her own phlegm in the hall of the Provincial Hospital from complications of asthma. Nobody bothered to tell my wife that if she rolled her on her side she could breathe, and maybe she would still be alive today. My wife watched her die, while her brother and Father were out trying to find money to pay for her care.

How's that for disturbing?

Larry.

 

This an accurate if not somewhat overstated view of NOPH. However that said, Silliman University Medical Center, and Holy Child Hospital offer substatntially better service and care. Still. these are not up to critical comparison to U.S. hospitals.
There are competant Doctors in Dumaguete, but not across the board in all speciallities. If you live here and are concerned about a serious condition Chong Hua Hospital in Cebu is 4 hoours away and offers world class care.

 

I agree with you RHB, my mom was well treated in Holy Child Hospital with a private room and a highly recommendable doctor looking after her and at her fragile age of 88 she's still with us.
Had my nursing internship at Chong Hua Hospital, they are one of the best hospitals in Pi as of now.

 

Hospitals in Dumaguete

RHB is right. The provincial hospital in Dumaguete is actually as bad, as it is described here. My fiancee has personally watched a guy die in the emergency room after waiting for hours and without having received any attention at all.

However RHB is also right, that Dumaguete have two perfectly acceptable private hospitals. So this is only a problem for those, who can not afford to go to these places.

 

This kind of bad situation in government hospitals don't exist only in PI but also here in the USA. It happened to my brother. The ambulance took my brother to a county hospital here in northern california with his wife on his side the paramedics rolled him down the hallway instead because they said the emergency rooms were full and had only one doctor. While waiting in the hallway, he was screaming for a doctor to help him because he said he is going to die. Half of his body was numbed and his wife and I massaged his legs, but it did not do any good. The nurses just did not pay attention did not check his condition, they kept telling him that he'll be seen by a doctor in a short while, but three hours later still no doctor. My brother died of aneurysm of the abdomen exactly three hours and a half after he was rolled into a hallway. The doctor did not see him until the blood spurted from his mouth, ears and nose, and they tried to revive him, but all in vain.

Until now, the emergency rooms in some government hospitals in US still a big problem. It happened so many times that patients die in the emergency rooms or hallway without seeing a doctor. The government is trying to find a solution on this problem. But as far as I know, the problen still exists.

So now you know, this kind of situation doesn't happen only in the third world, but also to a first world. :( :D