Without the White Coat
By Dr. Florentino Alerta

Ensuring a healthy workplace

 Last week was so hectic for me. After the 27th PCOM Annual Convention then came the 44 th Annual PAFP Convention, in just a week occupational health practitioners and family physicians all gathered in Metro Manila to be updated on the new trends and ever changing roles, directions and future of their specialties.

The 27 th PCOM Annual Convention held at EDSA Shangri-la was full of energy with Honorable Secretary Dr. Francisco Duque III, the President and CEO of the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation, as the keynote speaker. In his speech, he assured all the practitioners of occupational health coverage in PhilHealth just like other specialties. The major topics that were undertaken in the sessions were strengthening occupational health partnerships, enhancing collaboration with professional medical societies, enhancing personal and professional development, and lastly enhancing occupational health practice.

Occupational or Industrial Medicine, among the existing specialties, is so unique that it involves several government agencies in its practice. Among them the DOH-Department of Health, DOLE-Department of Labor and Employment, and the Bureau of Working Standards. Thus, the theme: strengthening linkages toward a healthy workplace was really relevant. The above-mentioned government agencies are the implementing organizations of the labor and health standards of the country. Some specialties may be well known from the organ systems they specialized in, but the general population tends to forget that they are mere employees, employers or workers in which occupational health is the center of their life. How can a worker or employee of a bank, restaurant, hotel, processing plant, department store, or a manufacturing plant understands the factors that affect them in terms of job related stress and work related diseases like respiratory diseases, musculo-skeletal diseases, cancers, injuries in the job, cardiovascular diseases, reproductive disorders, neurotoxic disorders, noise induced hearing loss (NIHL), dermatological disorders, and psychological disorders. There are certain Republic Acts or Executive Orders that ensures the healthy status of every Filipino worker where the practice of Occupational Medicine falls, but as a specialty we cannot implement this Republic Acts or Executive Orders since we are not the implementing arm of the law. In other words, as practitioners of occupational health we cannot let an establishment or an employer comply to the working standards or standards of health in the work place that makes the practice of industrial or occupational health worthless.

Let us look at the national statistics, in the Philippines the formal work force is composed of 36,619,000 workers , and in the practice of occupational health these are our clients since our specialty ensures the health being of the workers. ( “Occupational Health for ALL” - WHO, Bejing , China October 1999). The statements that was coined in Bejing, China in October 1999 looks very promising in paper only, but implementing it in the Philippines is just part of our dreams. Usually, the implementation of these programs always fall short due to the lack of personnel, manpower and availability of funds, we tend to forget that these are “workers” in the work place. If we look at the vision of the environmental and occupational health of DOH that states “Healthy settings for all Filipinos” with a mission of Occupational Health as “ providing leadership in the presentation of work related diseases, poisoning, illnesses and injuries and a health status objective to reduce the morbidity, mortality and disability resulting from adverse occupational conditions.” Indeed it looks good in paper, but the big question or the nightmare is how to implement it all. DOH Occupational Health Program component consist of Occupational Toxicology, Industrial Hygiene (Chapter VII of the Sanitation Code), and the Healthy Workplace. The big question that still hangs is this, can the entire population of workers avail these services from our government agencies? Or is it just a lip service or a form of red tape?

As partners in health may it be the DOH or DOLE, practitioners of Occupational Health will always be there to extend a helping hand and will always be a part or the worker's health.