Miscalculations
Drug Stock Out?
by Miguel Buzon
In a setting where affordable healthcare is a privilege amidst health crises, the masses suffering from sickness clamor to gather every finite resource that they can scavenge from the little money that they earn from their minimum wage professions — while others simply succumb to their preventable deaths.
The Department of Health (DOH) has once again made headlines as the misuse of funds and government resources led to the expiration of unused COVID-19 vaccines — an unnecessary mishap that could have prevented the deaths of thousands of Filipinos during the pandemic.
The issue was addressed by the Commission on Audit (COA) as the DOH was unable to distribute over seven million vials of COVID-19 vaccines to the public which only expired in DOH warehouses and health facilities. An astounding amount of P11,186,368,902.47 went to the bin along with the wasted medicinal supplies due to poor drug procurement and distribution planning — another waste of taxpayers’ money.
It was an avoidable incident only if adequate planning and proper budget allocation was made by qualified health personnel, and not military retirees. However, it is far-fetched with the reality Filipinos live in today — a reality where the cards were played and are still being held by the modern Filipino mafia, also known as the Duterte administration.
These vaccines are a manifestation of what the people really needed in a time where it was deemed as a necessity that safeguards not just their personal health, but also those around them. Despite not everyone being on board with the inoculation, it is still a matter of concern of public health dissemination in which the government drastically failed.
It should be noted that majority of the DOH personnel during the pandemic are ex-military generals appointed by former President Rodrigo Duterte, who is also currently being probed by the International Criminal Court (ICC), for the National Task Force Against COVID-19. These ex-generals including Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana, appointed as Chair, are part of the looming problem as their incompetence and lack of knowledge in public health has burdened Filipinos which then further romanticized resiliency as means to be satisfied with mediocrity.
It is also a recurring theme in DOH during the pandemic when COA also tagged the department in 2021 where an amount of P6.649 billion went missing from the allotted P104.546 billion budget. This further begs the question on how broken DOH is, and how long did they think they would go unnoticed, not up until they were questioned on the losses on unused vaccines.
In relation, the misallocation of government funding and personnel shows where their priorities lie similar to what situation the University of the Philippines Manila (UPM) and the Philippine General Hospital (PGH) are facing today — budget cuts. The lack of reagents and equipment in health colleges such as the College of Pharmacy (CP) has become a growing problem in student education as this restricted them from properly learning, and instead resolving to alternative yet outdated ways of conducting their day-to-day experiments.
The point is, while students struggle with what little resources they have in their respective colleges, the DOH is carelessly mishandling inventory management leading to financial losses due to unused vaccines. These losses would have benefited other government institutions, especially PGH, where the staff experience burnouts and inadequate compensations due to shortage and lack of equipment.
The blatant disregard of the credibility of healthcare workers, especially during the pandemic, is an offensive remark on the blood, sweat, and tears that they had to shed just to obtain medical degrees. Fields including public health, pharmacy, and hospital management would have proven useful as they are more than qualified to manage an outdated healthcare system.
The flames of this fiery fiasco were never vanquished, as it was further stoked by corrupt officials who filled their greedy pockets with sustenance. With issues on misuse of public funds being resurfaced, not just with the COVID-19 vaccines, but also with the likes of Sara Duterte’s confidential funds, it is high time that Filipinos critically question how government institutions handle their hard-earned money that they pay off through taxes.
In an ideal world, everyone is able to afford healthcare as they are made aware of the benefits through proper public health forums. They do not have to live on edge anymore and be burdened with incompetence and corruption.
The only question left to ponder is: Is DOH capable of such change, or will the cycle of mismanagement and neglect continue?
