EDITORIAL - The SWS hospital survey

Department of Health Secretary Francisco Duque III must be dreaming when he said that the improved services of state-run hospitals, which are already seemingly at par with private hospitals, is the reason why more and more Filipinos are patronizing government-run hospitals. DOH proudly announced the results of an SWS survey wherein majority of the respondents - 67 percent of 1,200 adults surveyed last June and 62 percent of respondents in a survey done last month - said they preferred to be treated in government hospitals.

However, even if the survey showed that there are now more people patronizing public hospitals and that the respondents were satisfied with the services of these hospitals, the survey also revealed that 72 percent of those who said that they prefer to be treated in government hospitals cited affordability as the reason for their choice of hospital. This just goes to show that people have no choice but to go to government-run hospitals because they cannot afford to be treated in private hospitals and not because they think that the services in public hospitals are at par with the services in private hospitals.

Surely, if people only had money, they would go to private hospitals. And who wouldn't when state-run hospitals like the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center is as crowded as ever! Just visit the maternity ward in public hospitals and the sight of two mothers sharing a hospital bed would catch your attention.

Let's face it Secretary Duque that people run to public hospitals for only one reason and that is they cannot afford private hospitals. The survey tells us so.

This is why the government should put more attention and more funds to improve the services of public hospitals. Instead of wasting money on useless projects or projects that only benefit a few, government should concentrate on the improvement not only of services but also of the skills of the staff of these hospitals, especially since more and more people are now patronizing them. Then maybe time will come when the government can truly claim that the services of the hospitals it runs are at par with private hospitals.