House approves bill updating old medical law

The House of Representatives has approved a bill updating the old Philippine Medical Act of 1959.

"We have to meet the awesome challenges of improving the quality of health care and the imperative of global competitiveness in the field of medicine," Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr., one of the bill’s authors, said yesterday.

House Bill 4729, titled "Philippine Medical Act of 2002," would regulate the education and licensure of physicians, and the practice of medicine.

It would create the Professional Regulatory Board of Medicine in place of the Medical Examiners under the old law. The board would be composed of a chairman and five members.

It would also include psychiatry among the subjects for licensure examination and require internship training in the completion of a doctorate degree in medicine.

The other authors of the measure include Reps. Eladio Jala of Bohol, who chairs the committee on health, and Sulpicio Roco and Rolando Andaya Jr. of Camarines Sur.

Having disposed of the proposed new law on medical education and practice, the health committee will next tackle a bill that seeks to severely punish medical malpractice.

The bill’s principal author is Rep. Oscar Rodriguez (Lakas, Pampanga), whose son was a victim of doctor’s negligence.

Similar cases of neglect and incompetence have been reported to Rodriguez and a group of congressmen led by Ted Failon of Leyte who is pushing for the passage of a medical malpractice law.

Failon said a pregnant woman who was his constituent in Tacloban City died after a simple operation for a cyst at the Philippine General Hospital. Her baby also died.

Pasig Rep. Henry Lanot has claimed that he was a victim of malpractice.