1867 PATIENTS IN ONE BED: THE SANTA MARIA PUBLIC HOSPITAL QUANDARY
By: Louisse Althea V. Agustin, Jelmer C. Cabanza, & Christine Patrice Anne F. Espino
In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, several complaints regarding the medical situation at Rogaciano M. Mercado Memorial Hospital in Santa Maria, Bulacan began to surface. Lack of basic facilities, long lines even for emergency cases, inhospitable hospital staffs, and–worst–wrong diagnosis leading to severe complications and/or fatalities, etc. This is to the extent that the hospital and issues regarding it have reached the national news and have gone viral several times. Even so, all of these concerns were strongly denied by the hospital and its officials, and are still not addressed as if they were nothing but rumors that damages the reputation of the hospital.
For a public hospital which a lot of people run to at times they need to, the situation in the named hospital is indeed a dilemma. This is specifically for people that are struggling financially or are under the poorest of the poor category that cannot afford those private hospitals that charges more than they make every hour spent in them and left with no choice but to put their lives on the line of such hospitals.
One community in the similar municipality, Barangay Poblacion of Santa Maria, Bulacan, are found to be experiencing such cases. As we engage more and more to the people of this certain community that are struggling in economy, it can really be said that failure to address such issues are affecting the marginalized sector greatly.
Carmenita Villano, a 66-year old resident of Barangay Poblacion for 40 years, is one of the residents that has unwelcoming healthcare service experiences at the previously known Santa Maria General Hospital. The senior resident reported that the hospital staff are selective in accommodating patients. She claimed that she had seen many instances where staffs prioritize people they personally know over those they do not regardless of the difference in the condition of the patients. She had experience how unaccommodating the hospital was when she developed a severe disease that needs medical check-ups from time to time. Although she falls under the priority category for her age and condition, she was still demanded to wait in a long line, forcing her to just switch to a different but farther hospital from her place since there are no other public hospitals around. This new hospital somewhere in Malolos, Bulacan she gets her regular medical check-up from is more than an hour away not considering the heavy traffic that usually gets in the way, which are really not good for emergency situations.
Moreover, Carlota Aguinaldo, 60-year old, 42 years resident of the barangay, also shared her experience in an interview. She said that there was this time where she experienced an emergency situation yet the hospital did not prioritize her despite how critical her condition was. She was even asked to transfer lines after lines, seemingly ignoring how bad her situation then was. Despite that, unlike other residents who have experienced bad service from this healthcare facility, she was left with no other choice but to bear with everything as she did not have the means to transfer hospitals as she cannot afford the private ones nearby, and the public ones in the farther municipalities.
Just from the experiences of these two, the healthcare service this community attains is indeed questionable. It is depriving them of proper health anyone has the right to have.
To further confirm these claims, our group decided to see the situation for ourselves.
By just looking on the façade of the hospital, a long line of patients can be observed with only the shade of the tent covering them from this extremely dangerous heat situation. Some are on their wheelchairs, some had obvious injuries that can be considered an emergency situation. We tried asking people in these long lines, and it was revealed that most of them have been waiting there for hours. No matter what their conditions are–emergency, follow up check ups in the Out Patient Department (OPD), senior citizens, PWDs or not–they had to patiently wait to have the healthcare service. And when asked how are they managing to settle for the situation, all of them said that it is mainly because it is the only accessible hospital for them due to financial and location situations.
In the municipality of Santa Maria, Rogaciano M. Mercado Memorial Hospital is the only public hospital present in the place despite having a more than 280,000 population as of the latest census of the Philippine Statistics Authority. This is not enough as this hospital is classified as level 1 hospital only with a maximum of 150 beds. This lack of bed solely is not ideal as per the prescription released by the House of Representatives, stating that the “bed-to-population ratio must not be more than 1 bed to 800 population (1:800)”. 150 beds can only ideally accommodate 120,000 people, not even half of the population of Santa Maria, Bulacan. In this case, instead of one bed to 800 people, the ratio becomes 1:1867 or one bed to 1867 people.
Upon asking here and there, we have also figured out that neighboring citizens of various municipalities also rely upon this hospital for the same reasons given by the studied community. Pandi, Bulacan, Santa Maria’s neighbor municipality, does not have a public hospital on its own, forcing residents to also seek medical attention at Rogaciano’s. Pandi, based on the similar census to the previous, has more than 115,000 population which when combined to Santa Maria’s, makes the bed to population situation multiple times worse.
The hospital being overcrowded is undeniably one of the prominent reasons why such type of hospital service is happening within the hospital. With all that being said, an attempt to get the side of the municipality officials that are responsible for the hospital given that it is a public institution was made but neglected. Healthcare heads of the municipality refused to give statement about such issue. An official of Barangay Poblacion, however, disclosed that a plan to build another public hospital within the municipality has been made on our second visit.
If another public hospital is to be made nearby, the quality of healthcare service they can get might improve, finally giving them the care they very much need in order to literally live a good and healthy life. They would not have to weep in frustration as they lose someone close just because they were not able to receive proper medical attention anymore. They will no longer have to wait under the scorching heat while suffering in pain, nor travel as much while they are sick just to attain medical care. And above all, there will be no need to worry about feeling better at a certain cost as this is planned to be a public hospital.
Residents of Barangay Poblacion were delighted by such news and are hoping for the execution of the plan.
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