Medical care in the Philippines

[Sangoma]

Is there any state medical care?
On various forums where scams are mentioned, the money often seems to be for emergency medical care.

Is it the case that if you get ill and can't pay, you're just left to die?

What happens if someone has TB or another normally notifiable disease?

Or is it a case that if you can pay you get better treatment and don't have to wait?


I'm not making any comparisons to the NHS, just wanting the hard facts. I have lived in third world countries, where government hospitals range from just a place to lie, to being fairly good.

[joebloggs]

thats why you should have travel insurance, and never go without any

if i remember , there is no 'free' state care, only thing you wouldn't have to pay for is the nurse and doctors time. you would have to pay for everything else drugs, bandages etc..

[Sangoma]

thats why you should have travel insurance, and never go without any

if i remember , there is no 'free' state care, only thing you wouldn't have to pay for is the nurse and doctors time. you would have to pay for everything else drugs, bandages etc..

Agreed on the insurance, I was really thinking about the people who live there, not visitors.

[scott&ligaya]

There are public hopsitals, but patients still pay for just about everything, many cannot afford this and there are numerous charity/church clinics with doctors/nurses working for free, in the provinces you will find weekly/monthly mobile very basic clinics. You are right if you can pay you can will have excellent care in private hospitals. Foriegners can usually afford the best provided they have invested in proper travel/living abroad health insurance schemes. In the Phils there are schemes to recover most hosptial costs which you pay monthly subscriptions to. When we finally retire back to Palawan one of the most important things which we need to ensure is that we are properly covered and that appropriate care is avialable at the local Adventist private hospital. One good feature of being in Puerto Princessa is that there are 3 to 4 one hr flights daily to Manila.

[joebloggs]

my misses is a doc from the phils, she can tell you of many sad stories of how babies, kids and adults have died becuase they or their families couldn't afford to pay for the medicine and treatment.. the nhs is one of a few things left this country has that we can be proud of

[aromulus]

the nhs is one of a few things left this country has that we can be proud of

Have you tried to make an urgent appointment for the quack lately....?

[keithAngel]

Have you tried to make an urgent appointment for the quack lately....?

Vets dont come under the NHS

[jencha8569]

Have you tried to make an urgent appointment for the quack lately....?

[kimmi]

Vets dont come under the NHS

[joebloggs]

Vets dont come under the NHS

have you paid a vets bill lately ? i have £1,000 , and the vets incompetence to diagnose what was wrong with my dog could have killed her..

no dom, i'm lucky i've no need to go..

but my misses works for the NHS, and as a filipina i knows she works her off, taking blood from nearly 100 patients in a few hours, in near 2 yrs, she has never taken a day off sick or never complains..


if you don't like the nhs go bupa and pay thru the for treatment

[kimmi]

have you paid a vets bill lately ? i have £1,000 , and the vets incompetence to diagnose what was wrong with my dog could have killed her..

we have the same experience Joe poor old dog and also we have to pay the vet's bill for their incompetence glad she's home now..

[joebloggs]

we have the same experience Joe poor old dog and also we have to pay the vet's bill for their incompetence glad she's home now..

infact my misses had a better idea what was wrong with the dog than the vet, i even found out what was wrong with the dog on the net, and went back to the vets after reading this
"Pyometra is a disease of the uterus most commonly seen in female dogs, but also seen in queens (female cats), rabbits, ferrets, rats and guinea pigs. Pyometra is an important disease to be aware of for any dog owner because of the sudden nature of the disease and the deadly consequences if left untreated. It has been compared to acute appendicitis in humans, because both are essentially empyemas within an abdominal organ."

it was more than 2 wks b4 the vet diagnosed it correctly..

[Eljohno]

I think Philhealth is an option that many pay into that helps a little towards health care..

[jencha8569]

I think Philhealth is an option that many pay into that helps a little towards health care..

yes true i think they gave 50% discount on members to their dependants.
but if u not a member then would be hard for hospitalization if u aint got money here in phils.

[jimeve]

have you paid a vets bill lately ? i have £1,000 , and the vets incompetence to diagnose what was wrong with my dog could have killed her..

no dom, i'm lucky i've no need to go..

but my misses works for the NHS, and as a filipina i knows she works her off, taking blood from nearly 100 patients in a few hours, in near 2 yrs, she has never taken a day off sick or never complains..


if you don't like the nhs go bupa and pay thru the for treatment

have you ever paid for a quacks bill.

[Banana]

Have you tried to make an urgent appointment for the quack lately....?

Is this a criticism? If it is then I have made two urgent appointments in the past 3 years and been seen by my GP within 3 hours on both occassions.

[aromulus]

Is this a criticism? If it is then I have made two urgent appointments in the past 3 years and been seen by my GP within 3 hours on both occassions.

You must be one of the lucky ones, then.....
Postcode lottery...???

A couple of my elderly neighbours didn't get an appointment for 9 days....
They both had to go to A&E before the appoinments were due....
I believe that the Triage nurses didn't spend much time on them, but had them seen immediately.

[KeithD]

We get same day appointments

In fact our GP even phones us up to tell us we'll be ill next week, can we pick the medication up today?

[Piamed]

More and more people are visiting GPs only if they need a referral or a prescription. Patients are often using the internet for accessing information:
http://www.nhsdirect.nhs.uk/help/bodykey/ One must be sensible with this option though.

Not wanting to worry any of you but anyone who has been around medical professionals for any period of time will tell you that there are some doctors that they would not even let near their most hated neighbours dog!

Toks

[robeth]

We have a neighbor here with a filipina wife and the husband feels very ill since december but until now the doctors couldnt find anything wrong with him.

he couldnt eat anything nor drink except lucozade.

He's been into many check ups and scans for 5 months running and i asked the wife why it took them too long to diagnose, she said its bec theyre doing it level by level...started from the head, then the chest and then going down...

He's getting too thin and twice collected by the ambulance this week...they just couldnt afford a private doctor bec they both are now retired and not working...

NHS is free but....

[robeth]

My husband developed allergies after his first visit in the Philippines...which he never had before...

Its been ON and OFF for 3 years and NHS prescribed lotions, creams and steroids...

He's getting frustrated so he went to a private doctor and recommended an allergy patch...the main cause is LEATHER...among the other things...

then the bill...

£500 !!!!!

then after a few weeks, the result from the patch triggers a flare up so he need a presciption to calm it down... and he need another appointment (with the same private doctor ) and we reckons it needs another £££££ !!!!

[piccolapiccolo]

Thats just how frustrating medical care in the Philippines is! It has always been expensive to go to private hospitals.Public hospitals are also crowded that patients needing urgent attention have to line up.Some good hearted nurses even purchase cottons at their own expense !
Quack doctors are also not that reliable.My life was almost taken when I was 7 years old just because my stepmom and stepgrandparents opted to put their faith first to that quackdoctor living in the 99th mountain to heal me,not until it was time for me to gasp for my last breath.Gossh..to make the story short, the findings of the qdoctor turned out to be very different from the profdocs...hate to remember that thing...tsk tsk tsk

[Sangoma]

The NHS does have some very serious problems, but in general people aren't left to die from lack of money.

Here in Coventry we have a new "super hospital" that would be more accurately described as a "super disaster" and must be the most unpleasant and stressful hospital I have ever visited anywhere. The staff are treated badly, the place is built like a post war council house, certain design aspects could have been done better by primary school kids, and of course the public did not stop getting sick as the powers that be decreed. Even Zimbobwe would have been hardpressed to make a bigger mess of it.

We can get in to see GPs fairly easily, but they often miss problems until too late, and if you have an emergency, they tell you to go to A&E anyway.

However, there is one very good thing that I have seen everywhere, and never seen it missing, and that is the lovely nature of the nursing staff and MOST doctors. They work under very difficult and stressed conditions. I'm surpriesed the PCTs dont have them wearing floor shiners so they can shine the floor as they walk.


But however bad it may seem, it is so far better than nothing.

[andypaul]

Having strolled round a few of our central london hospitals in the course of work im amazed how poorly the services and structures in bulidings have been extended in the hospital.
I won't mention which one but i was told by one of the in house sparkys at one very famous hospital the electrical supplies are at breaking point.
The equipment used increases wheter medical, admin related, research or just services such as tvs, fans and aircon/heating increases at breakneck speed.

At another normally connected to the other one mentioned the electrical system is so poorly designed, in one of the most critical departments if one circuit goes it drags down most of the computers and medical equipment in this department.

The staff do amazing stuff the money is there but it appears that in stead of just adding bits on some hospitals should be closed and knocked down to keep up with demands of both equipment and the volume of people using them. But it will never happen when they try and bulid new hospitals the logstics and scope is so massive problems are bound to occur so its a catch 22.

[kimmi]

IMHO, I still prefer the medical care in the Phils. though its expensive compared here in the UK..Ive been ill this past few days, so my hubby and I goes back and forth with our GP..We were told that they think it is kidney stones but my hubby believes it is appendicitis because he experienced it before so he knew how it feels..to make the story short, they told us that I need a scan to make sure of it..they gave me a prescription of an antibiotic and a pain killer and almost a week now I havent received my appointment for my scan.. is it really how the GP's here in the UK??they gave medications without laboratories??

[andypaul]

You must be one of the lucky ones, then.....
Postcode lottery...???

A couple of my elderly neighbours didn't get an appointment for 9 days....
They both had to go to A&E before the appoinments were due....
I believe that the Triage nurses didn't spend much time on them, but had them seen immediately.

At my local Gp you can get same day service most of the time if you ring up early enough have all day and say its an emgency.

Otherwise if not its days, if not a week and days before you will get an appoiment.

[andypaul]

IMHO, I still prefer the medical care in the Phils. though its expensive compared here in the UK..Ive been ill this past few days, so my hubby and I goes back and forth with our GP..We were told that they think it is kidney stones but my hubby believes it is appendicitis because he experienced it before so he knew how it feels..to make the story short, they told us that I need a scan to make sure of it..they gave me a prescription of an antibiotic and a pain killer and almost a week now I havent received my appointment for my scan.. is it really how the GP's here in the UK??they gave medications without laboratories??

Some doctors dish out antibiotics and pain killers like sweets from conversations with workmates and others.

I would not be surprised if everyday medcines cost bugger all compared to a scan on the GP's budget and he/she hoping to push you in to next months budget or hope you forget about it altogether. Don't forget to chase it up.

[walesrob]

At my local Gp you can get same day service most of the time if you ring up early enough have all day and say its an emgency.

Otherwise if not its days, if not a week and days before you will get an appoiment.

Seems we are lucky here in West Wales - at the local "health centre" (not called surgerys anymore!) we can get an appointment same day either morning or late afternoon, and it doesn't have to be an emergency.

[kimmi]

that's what I am afraid of, I am a wide reader and do some researches that antibiotics and pain killers are not good for us especially if we become dependent and resistant of it also it can make our bones brittle..thats why I didnt take that eventhough they prescribe it to me..

[aromulus]

that's what I am afraid of, I am a wide reader and do some researches that antibiotics and pain killers are not good for us especially if we become dependent and resistant of it also it can make our bones brittle..thats why I didnt take that eventhough they prescribe it to me..

If you are in pain then you use them.... That is why they are called painkillers... Diba...???