ASIA/PHILIPPINES - The poor wait outside hospitals because they cannot pay their visits and treatments and very often die

Tuesday, 26 November 2013

Cebu (Agenzia Fides) - The consequences of the earthquake and Hayan typhoon that hit the Philippine population continues to get worse also because of the poor condition of the various hospitals, including the Hospital of Cebu declared uninhabitable due to the damage reported to some of the main beams of the building. The building was "transferred" to the local barracks of the fire brigade, which reopened a week ago, and can only accommodate emergencies with a capacity of only 100 beds. Another hospital is the provincial one that serves the outlying provinces without health centers or that do not have the necessary facilities. The urban poor are cared for there, but they have to pay and who does not have enough money to pay for a meal cannot afford to go to the hospital. "As often happens, it is the poor who pay the price", says to Fides sister M. Joachim from Cebu. "After the devastation suffered in Leyte, the focus has shifted to the north, leaving Cebu in terms of absolute insecurity, with inadequate facilities to treat the poor, where they are completely ignored". Sister Joachim continues, "I was at the health district with 17 detainees who had to do x-rays. These share cells with tuberculosis patients, whose diagnosis is incomplete, and therefore they are also exposed to TB but they will never have the certainty because they are left on their own.
On the streets of Cebu the mentally ill seem to multiply every day since they are discharged from the hospital very quickly. There are those who die sitting outside the emergency room waiting to be helped because they do not have the money to pay; women sitting by the roadside with a newborn baby in their arms wrapped in dirty rags; elderly people sitting on the sidewalks begging. (AP) (Agenzia Fides 26/11/2013)


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