The current debate is about having an HONEST AND CRITICAL APPRAISAL of what went wrong with the PH pandemic response.
Sadly, the discourse is hampered not only by the refusal to admit that there IS SOMETHING WRONG, but also by the vociferous defense of it!
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The patent refusal to admit such shortcomings is worsened by the attitude of IATF advisers, particularly doctors, who not only ignored valid concerns and criticisms but actually BELITTLED those who raised them!
I cannot accept that a decade of studying all boils down to a single exam. Who would NOT BE STRESSED by that?!
At best, the PLE only measures a fraction of how much we learned or know.
But the process is as outdated as the questions are random.
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I mean, 100 questions covering an entire subject you took five years prior IS NOT an adequate measure of how much we know.
Worse, the questions do not always reflect the fundamentals required of each subject.
TBH, a great deal of testmanship is needed.
So how is this FAIR?
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The PLE does not even take into account changes in med educ!
Some years ago, when some med schools decided to change to problem- or organ-system based educ, they erroneously still used the PLE as a measure of success.
Nung dumami yung bumagsak, binalik sa dati yung system.
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If you just bothered to find out before dishing out your response, you would have known that cases such as this actually happens quite frequently.
While PhilHealth has different case rates for different severities of COVID-19, these depend on WHERE the patient is confined. 2/
Since the patient was confined in a primary hospital (level 1), the hospital cannot reimburse for specialized care, which are mainly reserved for tertiary hospitals (level 3).
Kaya hindi ma-cover ng PhilHealth yung malaking bahagi ng bill nung pasyente. 3/
Mahalaga na maalala natin ang mga basic details ng Philippine Pandemic Response para mabalikan at masuri natin BAKIT at PAANO tayo umabot sa ganitong KAWAWANG kalagayan.
Eto ang isng short QUIZ to refresh our memory.
Ilan ang makukuha ninyo na TAMA?
1. Sino ang pangunahing namumuno sa COVID-19 Pandemic Response sa bansa?
a) IATF
b) NTF-ELCAC
c) OCTA
d) Hindi pa rin alam hanggang ngayon pero malamang hindi si Duque
2. Kelan itinakdang matatapos ang quarantine sa Pilipinas?
a) Pag alam na ng IATF yung dapat gawin
b) Pag naging humble na yung mga experts
c) Pag doktor na ulit si Duque
d) Pag naliligo na araw-araw lahat ng mga work from home
Health officials should stop hiding behind the law to impose its unjustifiable increased contribution rates.
PhilHealth is allegedly forced to require higher payments from members as this is a provision of the Universal Health Care (UHC) Law.
Totoo ba ito? NO.
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True, increased PhilHealth rates are part of the UHC Law. In fact, it is one of the controversial provisions that oppositors wanted to remove or change.
But even if the increased rates are part of the law, is govt really forced to implement it? NO.
Are there precedents? YES.
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The Magna Carta of Public Health Workers (1992) states the benefits that govt healthcare workers are entitled to.
But to date, these benefits are not all given to HCWs in govt hospitals. Govt refuses to provide funds for these benefits.
The COVID-19 pandemic has laid bare the reason why the Philippine healthcare system is so bad: its two leading agencies - the Department of Health and PhilHealth - are SH*T.
A thread on how these two agencies cannot even do their jobs properly and continue to fail Filipinos. 1/
DOH's incompetence is obvious in its (mis)handling of COVID-19 data.
Failing to provide timely reliable data, it resorted to arbitrary terminologies like "fresh" cases, window dressing its website, and now, "mass recovery" every Sunday.
The 50k+ validation backlog is proof. 2/
DOH (mal)treatment of health workers is notorious.
COVID-related benefits are difficult to get.
Initially, rather than hire additional HWs, the DOH called for "volunteers" with P500 honorarium.