The Philippines' COVID-19 Response: Symptoms of Deeper Malaise in the Philippine Health System (original) (raw)
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The Covid-19 Pandemic and Health Policy Change in the Philippines
Asia Policy, 2022
Over the past decade, healthcare systems in the Asia-Pacific region have made significant strides in their efforts to achieve universal health coverage. There are, however, many ongoing challenges in these systems that relate to access, financial protection, and strengthening public health. These challenges were brought into sharp relief by the SARS-CoV-2, or Covid-19, pandemic that caught most governments unaware and inadequately prepared. Governments across the world have had to introduce changes to their health systems to shore up weaknesses as they respond to the pandemic. Measures have included, for example, increasing funding, introducing a spectrum of regulatory measures to manage the demand for services, and playing a central role in coordination, among others. This essay describes the extent and nature of changes in the Philippines' healthcare system that have been introduced in response to the pandemic. It looks at the extent to which these changes are relatively new or a continuation of past trends and existing universal coverage reforms.
Flattening the curve: The Philippines' response to the COVID-19 pandemic
The emergence of the SARS-CoV-2 which brought the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the fragmented state of the Philippine health system. With almost 90,000 cases nationwide, and with the constant increase in daily transmission, the country remains far from its objective to flatten its curve. The efforts of the government remain insufficient as support for health workers, mass testing, proper contact tracing, and primary health care, stay inaccessible, mostly to the marginalized and the poor. Although there are some supports from the government to address the health and other needs of the Filipino population such as the Social Amelioration Program, this is not enough to support the almost 3 months of Enhanced Community Quarantine which leaves millions of Filipinos unemployed and has no primary source of livelihood.
2021
The Philippine healthcare system has faced one of its greatest challenges in the rise of pandemic crisis brought by the COVID-19 disease. This pandemic crisis has tested the preparedness and effectiveness of the Philippine healthcare system whether this crisis will help improve and strengthen it or reveal its weakness and rotting system through the lived experiences of selected medical frontliners in the National Capital Region. This research aims to uncover the strategic plans, policies, challenges and effectiveness of the Philippine healthcare system amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. Feedback Control Theory was used by the researchers to uncover the challenges faced by the Philippine healthcare system and the immediate strategic plans that they implemented to contain the spread of virus and its effectiveness. This qualitative research used thematic analysis that identified themes and patterns in the data from the respondents’ answers to unstructured questionnaire in an online interview. The themes that emerged revealed six strategic plans and policies that were experienced by the selected medical frontliners: (1) Policies on lockdown, (2) Hazard Duty Pay (AHDP) and Special Risk Allowance (SRA) for Medical Frontliners, (3) Financial Insurance Coverage from Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth), (4) COVID-19 Basic Health Protocols, (5) Government Screening and Diagnostic Tests and (6) Vaccination for COVID-19 the true efficiency of the Philippine healthcare system in combating the pandemic crisis. Common themes emerged from the answers of the respondents also revealed the challenges that they faced. These are the following: (1) Lack of urgency of the government in addressing issues brought by the COVID-19 pandemic; (2) Lack of transportation for healthcare workers during lockdown; (3) Issues on Government Diagnostic Tests and Vaccination for COVID-19 like the unaffordability of COVID-19 diagnostic test; (4) Personal challenges faced by the healthcare workers such as High Workload and Mental Health Problems; (5) Lack of PPE, Medical Facilities and Healthcare Workers. In totality, the existing plans and policies of the government towards the Philippine healthcare system are not enough and ineffective to address the current problems of COVID- 19 in the country
The Response of the Philippine Government in Handling the COVID-19 Pandemic
Journal of ASEAN Dynamics and Beyond, 2021
All countries in Southeast Asia have faced the threat of widespread outbreaks of Coronavirus (COVID-19). One of the countries in Southeast Asia that experienced the most significant impact from COVID-19 is the Philippines. This paper discusses the COVID-19 threat as a form of nontraditional human security threat and the Philippines Government's need to carry out securitization and response measures to prevent the spread of the threat. In addition, this paper also explains the impact of COVID-19 in the Philippines and the new normal conditions after the lockdown was put in place by the government. This descriptive analysis shows that the COVID-19 outbreak, as a non-traditional security threat, impacted various Philippines' sectors. This result also indicates the Philippine government's response in dealing with the impact arising from the COVID-19 outbreak and the implementation of new normal to drive the economy. Therefore, we divide the discussion into four parts: First, an overview describes the Philippines' COVID-19 cases. Second, explain the impact of a pandemic in various fields. Third, define the response of the Philippine Government in dealing with COVID-19. Fourth, describing the challenges in dealing with COVID-19 in the Philippines and the new normal situation in force in the Philippines.
Progress in disaster science, 2020
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Effectiveness of the Philippine Government’s Responses to COVID-19 Pandemic
Journal of Scientific Research and Reports
Background: The COVID–19 pandemic is a health issue and concern that posed domino effects along with health, economy, transportation, and education, among others. In response to the pandemic, governments and institutions worldwide have implemented various measures to slow down the spread of the virus. In the Philippines, both the national and local governments have responded to the COVID-19 pandemic with declarations of emergency, community quarantine, closure of schools and public meeting places, and other restrictions intended to slow the progression of the virus. Aims: The study assessed the effectiveness of the government's responses to the COVID–19 pandemic as perceived by professionals. Place and Duration of the Study: Pangasinan State University between March 2020 to May 2020. Methodology: The descriptive-survey research design was employed to a total of 522 professionals from Northern Luzon, Philippines. Data was gathered for one week after the 60 days implementation of ...
Philippine Development Response to Mitigate the COVID-19 Pandemic: A case study in Central Visayas
Global economics science, 2022
Policies play a crucial role in ensuring the welfare of a country's economy, its public health, and its social welfare safety nets in times of crisis. This article would like to identify the different policies employed by some of the ASEAN member countries, albeit heavily putting emphasis on Philippine's response to the pandemic. Countries have employed more or less identical policies as per standard protocol by the World Health Organization. However, policies that allowed for the capacitating of a country's facilities; such as but not limited to acquisition of equipments and more testing kits, and that of personnel are more effective in drastically slowing down the spread of the pandemic. The study has also found that there have been challenges, flaws, and certain difficulties to the implementation of policies. Most of the policies identified that target beneficiaries of identified vulnerable sectors are not sustainable. Some of the policies only aim to be band-aid (temporary) solutions , most of which only allowing at most two months of either financial assistance or in kind from the government, which is truly not enough to have outlasted a lockdown that lasted for almost 16 months. Finally, a draconic response or strong man policy has been found to have varying effects. It has also been found that such a response if misguided can lose its purpose and can be used as a means to crack down critics of a regime and those who are critical of its efficacy in its response to the pandemic.
Local government responses for COVID-19 management in the Philippines
BMC Public Health
Background Responses of subnational government units are crucial in the containment of the spread of pathogens in a country. To mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Philippine national government through its Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases outlined different quarantine measures wherein each level has a corresponding degree of rigidity from keeping only the essential businesses open to allowing all establishments to operate at a certain capacity. Other measures also involve prohibiting individuals at a certain age bracket from going outside of their homes. The local government units (LGUs)–municipalities and provinces–can adopt any of these measures depending on the extent of the pandemic in their locality. The purpose is to keep the number of infections and mortality at bay while minimizing the economic impact of the pandemic. Some LGUs have demonstrated a remarkable response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The purpose of this study is to identify nota...
Narrative of Philippine Government Strategy to Curb the Wuhan Virus (COVID 19) Pandemic
International Journal of Arts Humanities and Social Sciences Studies, 2020
When news came that a strange virus is discovered in China and the possibility of the outbreak, government prepared to contain it by introducing several measures to stop it. The advent of pandemic, which is not usual, caught government official off-guarded. This study helps, how Philippines respond to COVID-19 pandemic; what are the notifiable complaints encountered by the citizen; how was SAP distributed and how it affects the citizens; and how to improve the Government responses to pandemic based on the study. This study is limited to the existing condition in the Philippines beginning at the time the president declared lockdown to prevent the entry of virus right its doorstep until the present situation. This is a qualitative method, describing the data in the IATF, DOH, and social media which reports the situational experience in the pandemic. This is a narrative of what has been seen, reported by media and experienced at the onset of the pandemic. Every time the city or municipality increases the quarantine protocols, people think where to get food. This is true in the city, but those in the rural area, the increase in the quarantine protocol would mean an income to them since SAP will be distributed to those who are qualified. Compulsory use of face shield and face mask can open the economy without much risk. There should be treaty to treat aliens wherever they are, like a citizen of the country during pandemic. Sending them homes would eventually spread the virus.
International Journal for Psychosocial Rehabilitation, 2020
": The medical frontliners during the COVID-19 Pandemic in the Philippines are experiencing struggles as they perform their call of duty. To uncover these struggles, this qualitative research made use of the responses of the fifteen medical practitioners including medical doctors, nurses, and health aides in a designated COVID-19 hospital in Davao City, Philippines. Through thematic content analysis, the following struggles were identified: limited supply of food, need to stay away from one's own home, being evicted from the rented apartment, tendency to quit the job, emotional stress and depression, social discrimination, shortage of personal protective equipment, the dearth of manpower specialized on upper respiratory tract cases, and dishonesty and non-cooperation of some patients. The researcher recommends that the government must consider these experiences of the medical frontliners in policy-making for them to sustainably perform their call of duty amidst the risks and threats of COVID-19.