Government lacks med techs in fight against renal disease

CEBU, Philippines - The lack of medical technologists in many municipal health offices in Central Visayas continues to be a challenge in the efforts of the national government to minimize renal diseases affecting many Filipinos in the country.

The Renal Disease Control Program (REDCOP) of the Department of Health conducts constant trainings and campaign to doctors on the use of basic tools, which include Urine Examination or Urinalysis, to help prevent renal diseases.

Yet when they go back to their respective health offices or district hospitals, no medical technologists are available to do the urinalysis and other basic laboratory tests.

Med techs are important in a health office like in the municipalities where most indigent patients come for medical attention.

Basic laboratory tests such as urinalysis must be made available to the public especially in rural areas. The lack of med techs to do the job is driving the patients away to private hospitals which are expensive and the more the patients are discouraged to seek medical attention.

REDCOP promotes urinalysis as a basic tool to prevent renal diseases because an annual urinalysis gives the patients the idea what is going on in their bodies and not just the urinary tract.

Dr. Jocelyn Abellana, REDCOP-Center for Health Development Central Visayas coordinator said that the result of the urinalysis may tell other abnormalities in the body such as diabetes and hypertension, among others.

Renal diseases must be diagnosed and treated properly to prevent it from developing into end-stage renal disease what is commonly known as kidney failure.

The urinalysis is a screening tool to detect abnormalities in the urinary tract. Renal diseases do not manifest visible symptom for years but urinalysis can detect it through the composition of the urine, which is the product of the excretory system.

Almost all municipal health offices in the region have equipment and materials for urinalysis but the problem is with the manpower.

Supposedly, all Local Government Units must hire their own med techs. This is also a requirement to be a PhilHealth-accredited facility.

In Bohol, more than half of its municipal health offices have hired their own med techs after they lobbied to the League of Municipalities-Bohol Chapter to urge all mayors to spend additional for health care.

The province of Negros comes second to Bohol for being most responsive to the need for med techs in the health offices.

DOH-7 tagged Cebu as the least responsive province to the efforts of the government to curb the increasing number of patients with end-stage renal diseases.

Minda Quitoriano, Program Consultant on Quality Assurance of REDCOP and Adviser for Clinical Laboratory of the National Center for Health Facility Development said that there is a nationwide shortage of Medical Technologist in the country.

“That’s why PAMET (Philippine Association of Medical Technologists, Inc.) is campaigning to different schools, campaigning among students to take up med tech course because most of med techs have migrated or took up nursing to be able to work abroad,” Quitoriano said.

The lack of plantilla positions for Med Techs in the Municipal Health Offices also adds to the reasons why Med Techs do not apply in the government. — (FREEMAN)