Crisis In Medical Education In The Philippines

[Search]

This is a five year old speech. My uninformed guess is that it is still true. Before reading the speach, I had always assumed that the Philippines would have great doctors and nurses, given my experience outside the RP. Prior to reading the speech, I only wondered if the RP doctors and nurses had the appropriate high tech tools to do the job. Any feedback from those better informed than myself would be welcome. http://www.cebudocto...io/chua200.htmlSearchPS I had taken into account the brain drain but not the substandard schools.

In summary, the complex multi-factorial etiologies of this national crisis in medical education, in general, would include these ten: (1) Over abundance of medical schools in the country, many of which provide substandard medical education; (2) Admission of poor quality of students; (3) Lack of competent fulltime faculty, aggravated by piracy of teachers; (4) Unattractive salary for fulltime faculty members, discouraging many qualified ones from teaching; (5) Inadequate facilities and clinical exposure; (6) Dereliction of duties on the part of the Commission on Higher Education and other governmental agencies; (7) The apparent "personalization" and seeming lack of fairness on the part of the members of the board examiners, who still utilize an antiquated system of examination; (8) The indifference and ineffectiveness of medical associations, association of medical colleges, specialty societies and the like, to provide effective leadership and challenge what is going on; (9) the harsh financial realities confronting medical schools in the country today; and, to a major extent (10) The dirty politics and rampant corruption in our government, with the resultant rapidly deteriorating economy of the country. All these are the leading causes of the crisis before us today.

PPS From PinoyDocBlogs http://doktorko.com/_blog/index.php?mod=blog_article&a=91&md=897

Based on Professional Regulatory Commission data, the 71% average passing percentage in physician licensure examination on 1997 still remains undisputed. Since then, the following successive average passing percentage results declined: 65% on 1998, 69% on 1999, 65% on 2000, 62% on 2001, 66.05% on February 2002, 59.11% on August 2002, 57.03% on February 2003, 55.56% on August 2003, 51.97% on February 2004, 51.4% on August 2004, 54.47% on February 2005, 51.46% on August 2005, and 54.29%. on February 2006.

Edited December 13, 2009 by Search

[tropicalwaste]

Thing is if you take all the experience and knowledge for generations then at some point decline is inevitable purely because those who are teaching the now generation are unlikely to be the ones that taught the students in 1997. Also mentality has no doubt changed over the years (those that should be taught). If people dont want to learn they are unlikely to succeed.

[Mr Lee]

There are way more things going on in the Philippines than just brain drain. Bruce just came back from a medical mission to Catbalogan Samar and told me that the hospitals were disgusting, cats walking all around and that is extremely unhealthy in a place where babies are delivered or medical procedures are being preformed, lizard on the walls and leaving their little presents all over the hospital, toilets back flowing from the floods and of course the results of all the flooding due to poor planning and little to no drainage, rusty dirty equipment, people who have lost their will to help because they often probably feel totally helpless. The emergency room offers free visits as do many of the clinics but people have to pay for tests and medicines, so basically if the people do not have the money for those items then they are just sent home to suffer or eventually die of something that could have been easily cured, and then there are kids swimming in places where the sewers drain waste water into. Health is a major issue where the government does little to help the poor.I made a post here Bruces medical mission and photos so people can see some of what I am posting here for themselves. It is not only about training, IMO it is more about lack of money and feeling of helplessness on the part of those who try to help.

Edited December 13, 2009 by Mr. Lee

[tropicalwaste]

Your right there Mr.Lee also the fact the funding isnt spent across the country properly. E.g. the hospitals in Cebu will be a lot better than those in Samar which are nothing short of needing a complete rebuild/revamp. The medical supplies is always going to be an issue because the country isnt looking to adopt a fairer system as well as the fact there are plenty of medical companies making a fortune on overpriced drugs which are available. There is a severe lack of resources whichever way you look at it and will only continue to happen.