But Imelda Marcos could not be accused of being inattentive to the health problems of the people she loved dearly. She built several designer hospitals: the Philippine Heart Center, which is the only one in Asia; the Lung Center; the Kidney Center; Lungsod ng Kabataan or Childrens City, the only one of its kind in the world; and the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine. These institutions, constructed at great cost, were equipped with the latest medical equipment and could rival the best hospitals in the affluent countries. But these specialized designer hospitals were not the ones needed by a population whose medical needs were more basic. Most of these hospitals failed to give adequate medical services to poor patients. At the Philippine Heart Center (PHCA) one of the pet hospitals of Imelda, the director, Dr. Avenilo Aventura, received a huge salary, while his room was equipped with an anteroom, a bar with an upright piano, and a big television projector. The PHCA allotted only 50 out of 250 beds for charity patients, while the rest were for patients who would afford to pay the high fees. Early in 1986, right before the Marcoses were ousted, the Lung Center had only ONE PATIENT, while at the Quezon Institute, a hospital frequented by the poor suffering from tuberculosis, many patients were sharing small beds. - Some Are Smarter Than Others, by Ricardo Manapat
Posted on: Sat, 27 Sep 2014 14:23:02 +0000
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