SOS! Need help! Lawmaker warns PH health system on brink of collapse due to COVID-19

By Billy Begas

House committee on health chairperson and Quezon Rep. Angelina Tan said that the health system capacity is “at the brink of a collapse.”

Tan made the statement during her sponsorship speech at the House Committee on Ways and Means for the proposed Health Procurement and Stockpiling Act.

“We are undergoing through a huge surge from the first COVID-19 case we had from last year but this time with more variants and faster transmission rate. We are already at the brink of a collapse of our health system capacity with more COVID-19 patients coming in, more infected healthcare workers, and lack of hospital beds,” Tan said.

Aside from the scarcity of vaccines, Tan said the supply of medicines that could be used to treat COVID-19 patients are declining due to high demand.

“To add more to our challenges, we have also been receiving reports of hoarding COVID-19 vaccines and raw materials for its production, especially when the US invoked its National Defense Production Act, which would definitely shake the steady supply of vaccines around the globe,” Tan added.

She said the proposal will prevent the repeat of what happened last year when there was scarcity in the supply of facemask, alcohol, personal protective equipment, mechanical ventilators and RT-PCR kits and machines.

“To avoid a similar situation, I have filed this bill with the main thrust of protecting the public health and safety by preventing and controlling the spread of diseases and other health hazard through stockpiling of essential and critical drugs and medicines, vaccines, devices and materials to effectively and swiftly confront the devastating consequences of public health emergency,” she added.

The tax provision of the unnumbered substitute bill was approved by the Ways and Means committee.

Source: Latest Politics News Today (Politics.com.ph)