SOME P43-million worth of equipment were found rotting in several state hospitals becasue of defects, poor maintenance and lack of trained personnel, which, according to the Commission on Audit, has resulted in wastage of taxpayers’ money and inefficient health care services.

“Hospital equipment, buildings and other facilities amounting to P42.6 million were either unutilized or idle due to defects, incompatibility, non-conduct of repair and maintenance and lack of manpower training,” state auditors bared.

In its report for the year 2011, the audit agency disclosed that among the equipment and machines that lie idle in these medical facilities is the P9.6-million fire protection system of the Philippine Orthopedic Center in Quezon City.

The commission added that besides non-delivery of quality health care services as promised by the government, non-usage of these machines also resulted in foregone revenues and wastage of government funds.

File charges
Since these facilities are under the Department of Health, the Audit commission asked agency officials to take appropriate repairs and slap sanctions against those who were responsible for the wastage.

“If necessary, take appropriate administrative and criminal action against the responsible officials for the wastage of government funds,” the agency said.

In Tondo Medical Center, a P7.12-million laboratory equipment for processing histopath specimen has been unused since 2002 because no staff member was assigned to handle the machine.

In San Lazaro Hospital, a walk-in freezer, dish washing machine conveyor, microfilm camera and processor and other pieces of equipment totaling P4.13 million were also idle because either there were no spare parts available or the hospital was not prepared in maintaining the machines.
Worse, auditors said that the items may not have been repaired at all.

Other machines and buildings owned by government hospitals that were found unused include those in the Cordillera Region, Cagayan Valley, Central Luzon, Bicol Region and Zamboanga Peninsula.

“The non-use of these facilities deprived the hospitals of additional income and prevented the hospitals from delivering quality health care services to the public,” the Audit commission stressed in the report.

State auditors said that the health department must immediately conduct repairs on items that can be salvaged.

They also recommended that the Health department to direct medical chiefs of the Orthopedic Center to save the fire safety and protection project so as not to waste taxpayers’ money.

Disallowances
Likewise, auditors reported that seven government hospitals failed to recover some P117.25 million in 2011 due to the disallowances of hospital claims by the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth).

As part of insuring the medical needs of poor people, PhilHealth-covered hospitals shoulder the cost of hospitalization of beneficiaries. PhilHealth then pays the costs of medical services of its members.

But the National Health Insurance Act of 1995 stipulates that PhilHealth “may deny or reduce any benefit” when the claims are, among others, over- or underused; unnecessary procedures and intervention were given to patients; irrational medication; and fraudulent.

In a review of the hospital’s claims, state auditors noted that there were seven hospitals that wished to recover their cost but were disallowed.

Jose R. Reyes Memorial Medical Center had the biggest disallowance of about P56.43 million; followed by Veterans Regional Hospital with P33.34 million and Adela Serra Ty Memorial Medical Center with P12.32 million.

Other hospitals that suffered disallowances were Ilocos Training and Regional Medical Center (P7.84 million); Paulino J. Garcia Memorial Research and Medical Center (P4.77 million); Dr. Jose Fabella Memorial Hospital (P2.02 million); and Region 1 Medical Center (P529,980.45).

“This resulted in the loss of hospital income of P117.25 million, which could have been used to augment their budget for delivery of health services,” the commission said.

Incomplete documentation, the inability of the hospitals’ billing section to comply with PhilHealth policies, filing or re-filing the claims beyond two months and case attended by non-accredited doctors, were the majority reasons for the disallowance, auditors noted.