U.P. PGH former Executive Director Dr. Carmelo Alfiler cites gains made during his term:

By Chanda Shahani

A statement uploaded in U.P.'s website on March 5, 2010 and authored by Dr. Carmelo Alfiler, the former Executive Director of the University of the Philippines (U.P.) Philippine General Hospital (PGH) cited gains made by his administration. He pointed out that that PGH's tanks was perennially running at half-empty to due to chronic budget shortages stemming from inadequatef funds from the National Government.

Putting the problems of PGH into context during his term (2004 to 2009), Dr. Alfiler said that:

• Very essential patient services such as drugs and medicines, laboratory reagents, medical supplies, x-ray films, food, janitorial, security, laundry, etc. were at 50% status in early 2004, along with utilities.
• There was a 45% increase in power rates in August 2004, which wiped out our early gains.
• PGH operationalized erstwhile non-functional as well as new hospital facilities (eg., th ER Complex, the Eye Center, central airconditioning units, Open Heart & Organ Transplant Operating Rooms, etc.) to meet the demands of more than 600,000 patients per year, 90% of them poor.
• The national budgets of 2005 and 2006 were re-enacted , thus there was no increase in budgetary allocations, so that our modest internal income was used for the MOOE shortfalls.
• Along the way, power costs increased relative to the purchase of modern, life-saving medical equipment and rehabilitation of patient areas in the run-up to PGH centennial year (August 17, 2006-August 17, 2007).
• With the advent of UP centennial celebrations in 2008, Dr. Alfiler also anticipated that PGH would be shelling out about PhP120,000,000 for the one-time PhP20,000/head centennial bonus and the PhP10,000/head collective negotiating agreement signing incentive for some 4,000 PGH employees. Many of these amounts would be charged against savings and potential 2008 income.
• All pledged payments for the rest of 2006, 2007 and 2008 were met. The remaining arrears of PhP 103,971,320.77 (January – December 2009) will be covered fully by the PhP 162,000,000 fund allocated in the just-signed National Budget of 2010 through the kind intercession of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and Congress. This latter amount will be more than enough to also fund current utilities payments as well as other priority services mentioned above.
• "Another piece of good news: the internally-generated income of PGH in 2009 was PhP 420,000,000 (vs PhP 360,000,000 in 2008). Substantial end-2009 balances from this income amounting to PhP 31,000,000. When added to the end-2009 balances from government subsidy of PhP 6,000,000 and from sale of drugs of PhP 11,000,000 the grand total is almost PhP 50,000,000," Dr. Alfiler said.

To get back to "Former U.P. PGH Executive Director Robustly defends Financial Record, while 2008 COA Report reveals more details," (Diliman Diary, March 6, 2010), just click on: http://tinyurl.com/ylzvrq7