Long-delayed accreditation

The public panic over melamine-tainted milk and milk products from China that found their way in store and grocery shelves being sold here has finally tapered off. Thanks to the firm hands that the Department of Health and the Bureau of Food and Drugs applied on this vital public health issue. The melamine-scare definitely caused so much business losses to many foreign and local producers of milk and milk products.

This is because milk is a basic food product that many people consume, especially infants and children. It is rich in vitamins and calcium. I still could not believe that some people in China would come up with such an idea of adding melamine supposedly as a protein substitute. High content of melamine becomes toxic to one’s body system. Its frequent use could cause kidney problems as in the case of the more than 53,000 Chinese babies who developed kidney stones because they were fed with melamine-tainted milk for quite a long time already until the doctors found out its cause.

As I’ve said in my previous column, I am not a milk drinker. I only add milk in my coffee. My usual coffee dose is two mugs a day, one at breakfast and one after lunch. At the height of the melamine-scare three weeks ago, I suffered a medical condition that my colleagues teased me was caused by the milk I drank in my coffee while I was in Beijing for one week in July.

You see, I was diagnosed with tendonitis on my left shoulder due to calcified deposit. This was seen in the X-ray taken on my shoulder where it showed too much calcium embedded on my shoulder’s tendon. Thus, it inflamed the muscles around it that caused so much pain every time I moved my left arm all the way down to my hand. It got worse when I still joined our regular aerobics sessions at the office, thinking the pain would go away after the arms exercises.

I remember my mother would take me to a “hilot” whenever I had sprain. Now, we have PT or physical therapy.

When I could no longer bear the pain, I went to the hospital for treatment. I was referred to the Rehab (or short for Rehabilitation) Medicine Department. I didn’t know at first there is this medical field that specializes on this kind of physical problem. It was a learning experience for me when I got to meet my physiatrist, or a physician who specializes in physical medicine. She is Dr. Dorothy Dychingbing of the University of Perpetual Help Dalta System in Las Piñas City.   

While undergoing treatment there, I learned that PT is one of two major disciplines in the Rehab Medicine. The other is occupational therapy (OT). As I understood it, PT tries to rehabilitate the patient’s physical motor activities of the body that suffered trauma because of accident or other causes. The OT, on the other hand, tries to rehabilitate the psycho-mental, social and physical activities to make the patient functional again despite the debilitating sickness. The objective, both though, of the PT and OT is to bring the patient back to his normal activities even with the medical condition that he or she has.

Aside from our doctors and nurses who are sought-after professionals abroad, PT and OT health workers are also in demand in other countries.

My attending PT in the hospital, Roselle Mendoza was employed by Perpetual after she graduated there from this course. She, too, is looking forward for greener pasture if opportunity comes her way to also go abroad.

My niece is in junior college taking up occupational therapy course at the University of Sto.Tomas. She has asked my help to bring to the attention of national government authorities concerned about the lack of action in the application for accreditation of the OT program of UST. To help me understand their plight, she brought me a copy of “The Varsitarian,” the official campus organ of UST. In the front page of the Sept.30 issue of this campus paper carried the story: “UST Occupational Therapy still unrecognized abroad.”

It reported that the UST College of Rehabilitation Sciences (CRS) filed its application for accreditation more than five years ago before the Occupational Therapy Association of the Philippines (OTAP). Because UST does not have the OTAP accreditation, its OT program remains unrecognized by the World Federation of Occupational Therapists.

An accreditation from both OTAP and WFOT would make OT graduates from UST certified for employment in the United States and elsewhere abroad. They learned about the unaccredited status of UST when one of their board topnotchers in OT failed to land a job in the US. He could not take the US licensure exam for the simple reason that UST is not accredited by the WFOT.

A check made at the WFOT website showed there are only five OT schools in the country so far accredited by them. These are the University of the Philippines-Manila (accredited since 1968); the University of Perpetual Help System-Laguna (1990); Velez College (2000); Cebu Doctors’ College (2001); and the Emilio Aguinaldo College (2006).

The UST Dean for CRS, Jocelyn Agcaoili was quoted complaining about how the OTAP has been sitting on the UST application since 2003. When sought to react on this, OTAP president Arscille Rosario Gozon admitted they have been unable to act on UST’s application due to their lack of manpower. “Most of them (OTAP staff) are going to the US for better paying jobs there,” Gozon was quoted as saying. But UST gets another chance to meet the requirements for their accreditation when OTAP conducts an ocular inspection of their OT college next month.

Since OTAP is a private organization, the government could only step in to help resolve this issue if there will be a formal complaint. Perhaps, the hundreds of OT students of UST, including my niece, should take up this cause to proper authorities, perhaps the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC).

At any rate, it was a blessing that we have our company’s Medicard health insurance. I was told that it would cost me a lot if I have no health insurance because Medicard took care of the professional fee and other fees related to my PT treatment. Health and medical care cost a lot not only in our country but elsewhere also. Now I know why it is said that health is wealth.