Private hospitals consider hospital holiday over cheap meds law
ROXAS CITY — Private Hospitals Association of the Philippines (PHAP) threatened to hold a hospital holiday should the government fails to refund their loses relative to the implementation of the Cheaper Medicines Law which took effect on August 15.
Mr. Jessie Contreras, administrator of Capiz Emmanuel Hospital, told The News Today (TNT) that PHAP discussed their sentiments of having a hospital holiday should the concerned government agencies will not listen to their predicament as regards the law reducing the prices of important medicines.
According to him, hospitals and pharmacies have already purchased medicines at a high price before the Cheaper Medicines Law took effect.
He added that hospital pharmacies still have old stocks bought at higher prices that need to be disposed first.
Chapter 3, Section 17 of Republic Act 9502, otherwise known as “The Universally Accessible Cheaper and Quality Medicines Act of 2008”and its implementing rules and regulation provide that the President of the Philippines, upon recommendation of the Secretary of the Department of Health, shall have the power to impose maximum retail prices over any or all drugs and medicines as enumerated and provided for within the law.
As consequence of the president’s appeal to pharmaceutical companies during the process of consultation, many of these companies voluntarily undertook to reduce by at least 50% the prices of 16 drugs that address diseases of public health concern originally included in the maximum drug retail prices such as hypertension, diabetes, common bacterial infections, amoebiasis, cancers and the like.
In addition, these pharmaceutical companies also undertook to reduce by about 10%-50% the price of 22 other drugs and medicines not included in the initial list of recommended by the DOH and DTI. The reduction of the prices of these drugs and medicines shall commence on August 15 and shall be fully implemented by September 15, 2009.
Contreras said that, although the hospital management will not be affected with the cheaper medicine law, it will also affect with its pharmacy inside the hospital.
According to him, some 750 delegates all over the Asia in which 100 participants coming from the Philippines attended the said conference in Vietnam.
He said that one of the topics during the conference was the hospital management and improvement of its operation.