Manila: A measure set before the House of Representatives proposes to maximise the country’s telecommunications infrastructure to deliver health services seldom reached by conventional means.
According to Representative Joseph Emilio Aguinaldo Abaya of Cavite’s first congressional district, “telehealth” can lessen direct and indirect health care costs, especially out-of-pocket expenses that are a major burden to patients and their families.
“Isolation due to distance, weather conditions, and transportation, as well as poverty and situations of disasters or armed conflict continue to be significant barriers to access to health services,” Abaya said.
The Philippines is an archipelago where a large portion of the country is out of reach of conventional health care services. The lawmaker said this peculiar geographic nature of the country makes it necessary to use “telehealth” as medium for dispensing services to those in need in the barrios (primary administrative units).
He said that by institutionalising the use of “telehealth”, lives as well as the cost of health care will be saved.
Quality health care remains beyond the reach of majority of Filipinos. “The Aquino Health Agenda report of 2010 showed that around 60 per cent of Filipinos who succumb to illness still die without medical attention,” he added.
He said institutionalising the use of telecommunications to deliver health services and facilitate better access to health care in far flung areas will make a difference to the lives of people in remote areas.
Abaya proposed through House Bill 6336 the establishment of a National Telehealth System that will govern the practice and development of telehealth in the country.
Under proposal, the National Telehealth System shall provide and support health care delivery, transfer of care of patients, exchange of health data and education especially in medically unserved and underserved communities.
Based on the reports made by the National Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS) in 2008 and by Unicef in 2004, Abaya said that the country has the highest rate in infant mortality and maternal deaths in Asia.
He said the basic health statistics are even worse in rural and often isolated areas because of the country’s archipelagic nature.
Under the propose measure, a mechanism will be in place for gathering, collating, and making available all health data using eHealth applications, from the local health systems to various managers at different levels within the health care system.
“The National Telehealth System shall set standards and establish regulations regarding the field of telehealth, strengthen the health systems and infrastructure as well as attract and retain health care providers in local areas,” he said.
The creation of the national telehealth system shall help reduce costs associated with health care and make health care more accessible and help improve health outcomes, he said.
