Without the White Coat
"PCOM without borders"
With the just concluded 8th midyear convention of the Philippine College of Occupational Medicine (PCOM) in Waterfront Hotel Cebu, the specialty in occupational and industrial medicine had further made its niche in the field of medical practice. It is so unique that it is the only specialty in the field of medicine that had direct linkages with the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), the Occupational Safety and Health Center (OSHC) and the Bureau of Working Conditions (BWC), and also with the Department of Health (DOH), Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and other government agencies.
The specialty that had been in existence together with the Department of Labor and Employment in the implementations of the Labor Code of the Philippines (Book Four: Health, Safety and Social Welfare Benefits, Chapter I- Medical and Dental Services, Chapter II- Occupational Health and Safety of the Presidential Decree #442 as amended) and Department of Health’s (DOH) Sanitation Code of the Philippines (Presidential Decree # 856). The practice of occupational medicine had also had its talks with the association of human resources department (HR, or PMAP) of the Philippines and the Chambers of Commerce of the Philippines ( the owners, the employers, the establishment, the executives-ECOP).
To oversee the safety and well-being of the Filipino workers PCOM had go beyond in its effort to professionalized the specialty in which it has already produce diplomates and fellows thru strict and rigid written and oral examinations in the specialty field of occupational medicine, but there are still big boulders and walls to breakdown. In creating a healthy workplace as mandated by law, not all establishments and manufacturing firms have occupational health physicians that oversees not only the medical consultations (pre-employment and annual physical examinations) of its employees, but further see to it that this companies are compliant with the Labor( work environment monitoring, hazards/risk management, materials handling, ergonomics) and Sanitation(industrial hygiene, waste/garbage disposal, environmental health, water/air/land pollutions) Code of the Philippines doing preventive measures and implementing his/her knowledge in occupational medicine to have a safe work environment for his/her workers and employees.
The practice of occupational medicine in the Philippines is geared towards the "common" Pilipino worker of the Philippines is the wheels of the Philippine economy and whose health and safety falls under DOLE, DOH, DENR and PCOM. With all the mandates of our government agencies not all workers and employees are guaranteed (under this presidential decrees # 442,856) a decent work place due to the absence of an existing health and safety programs in there companies, and to say the least that this workers and employees had never seen the face of a company physician or retainer ( as some HR put it) in his/her entire life while being employed in the company.
The practice of occupational medicine in the Philippines is so dependent on the budget of the establishment or company that is overseen by the HR department of the company, thus the mercy of hiring a company physician falls on the head of the HR department, in which if we look at the organizational chart of the company the occupational health physician(company physician) falls under the HR department of the company in dotted or broken lines indicating that he/she is employed under contractual basis only.( no connection whatsoever to the company when it comes to benefits, and other amenities the company provides and offers its regular employees, sad to say , if your relatives or love ones are in the HR department of companies and establishments then you are so lucky to be hired by that company and management as there company physician or retainer, or in some instances as its school or university physician even though you are not qualified and certified to practice occupational, industrial or school health, then as a physicians we should examined further our inner and deep conscience, first we are not trained as a company or as a school physicians and how can we delivered that much needed programs to the school and companies that we served, I feel that this physicians should be further be disciplined by there respective specialties- attention PCP, Philippine College of Physicians and PPS, Philippine Pediatric Society since most of your members are employed as company/school retainers/physicians, please remind them to undergo training and certification in basic occupational safety and health course either given by the OSHC-DOLE,UP Public Health and PCOM).
There are no boundaries in the practice of occupational medicine, the college had further made its mark in the international areas of practice and associations of occupational health, exemplified by its national president, doctor Oca Tinio who is also the vice president of the Asia-Pacific region of occupational health practitioners. There are no borders or boundaries for PCOM, but when management, HR, employers and owners of business will put up walls and borders thus we can never attained or implement further the provisions of the Labor and Sanitation Code of the Philippines, and as physicians with conscience we should only practice those that we trained in or we can institute programs and modules in Internal Medicine, OB-GYNE and Surgery residency training topics in occupational health and safety or institute programs in school health in Pediatric residency training programs so that as this residents finish there residency training and no jobs or vacancies are available they can now "consciously" practice occupational health and safety or school health.