The health of our nation

A RELATIVE of mine had a stroke last week. She is still in the hospital since then and had to spend several days in the intensive care unit. Recovery was fairly quick but staying in the hospital for a length of time gave me a peek into our health care system at work in close proximity.

There are only so many public tertiary hospitals in the country and most of them are in Metro Manila Area. East Avenue Medical Center, for example, is perennially full and one would feel guilty occupying the emergency room when more critical cases come in every so often. The same is true for the Heart Center, the Philippine General Hospital and other public hospitals in the area.