The Level of Efficiency of the Health Care Services of the Municipal Health Office of Peñablanca

Introduction

Health is wealth. This quotation is a part of the Filipinos daily life, as what other people say, health is something that is needed

to be treasured. It is something that is needed to be well crafted because even if you are the wealthiest person in the whole world if

you are not well physically, then what is the sense of having a big amount of money? Health is not equivalent to any monetary

amount.

“Although advances have been made to improve healthcare in the Philippines, there are still many issues that the country has

yet to overcome to achieve a high quality, cost efficient healthcare system.”– Katelynn Kenworthy. The Philippines belong to the third

world country. Its constituents can be the reason of the country’s success. However, how can the Filipinos help the country if the first

element that is needed to improve which is their health is being deprived to them just because the country can’t have a proper

management of the health care problems within the archipelago?

Additionally, the World Health Organization (WHO) labels a healthcare system as “well-functioning” if it provides impartial

access to quality healthcare regardless of pay dimensions while protecting them from financial consequences of poor health.

Healthcare in the Philippines does not meet these set standards. The WHO refers to the Filipino Healthcare System as “fragmented.”
There is a history of unfair and unequal access to health services that significantly affects the poor. The government spends little

money on the program which causes high out of pocket spending and further widens the gap between rich and poor.

According to the WHO, the background healthcare of the Philippines are the following:

1)Out of the 90 million people living in the Philippines, many do not get access to basic care. The country has a high maternal and

newborn mortality rate, and a high fertility rate. This creates problems for those who have especially limited access to this basic care

or for those living in generally poor health conditions. 2)Many Filipinos face diseases such as Tuberculosis, Dengue, Malaria and

HIV/AIDS. These diseases pair with protein-energy malnutrition and micronutrient deficiencies that are becoming increasingly

common. 3)The population is affected by a high prevalence of obesity along with heart disease. 4)Healthcare in the Philippines suffers

from a shortage of human medical resources, especially doctors. This makes the system run slower and less efficiently. 5)Filipino

families who can afford private health facilities usually choose these as their primary option. Private facilities provide a better quality

of care than the public facilities that lower income families usually go to. The public facilities tend to be in rural areas that are more

run down. These facilities have less medical staff and inferior supplies. 6)Only 30 percent of health professionals employed by the

government address the health needs of the majority. Healthcare in the Philippines suffers because the remaining 70 percent of health

professionals work in the more expensive privately-run sectors. 7)To compensate for the inequality, a program called Doctors to the

Barrios and its private sectors decided to build nine cancer centers, eight heart centers and seven transplant centers in regional medical
centers. 8)The Doctors to the Barrios included Public-Private Partnerships in a plan to modernize the government-owned hospitals and

provide more up to date medical supplies. 9)More than 3,500 pubs facilities were updated across the country.

However, living in the time of the 21st century makes everyone to be relieved because as everybody approach farther in terms

of years, everybody is also approaching the perfection of the dawn if civilization when it comes to the advancement of technologies

which they believe to be the answer for everyone to have a longer life because of the presence of the machines that makes the health

of be monitored and examined accurately, precisely and easily.

Yes, it is true that the technology today are already advancing globally but the Philippine’s problem on the health care services

among rural areas especially on the lack of facilities are very alarming. The country can’t cope up with the advancement of the

technology and seems to be a lot of steps behind other nations.

As a matter of fact, the Philippines is considered as one of the developing countries on the world in which explains why there

is a problem of the country’s health care services that why this paper aims to examine the effect of lack of health care facilities on the

services of the Health Offices of the Municipality of Peñablanca on its constituents.

 REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

The degree of general health improvement achieved by public and private health services is not as high as might be desired.

Although technical knowledge for achieving better health is available, in most countries this knowledge is not being put to the best

advantage of the greatest number. Health resources are allocated mainly to sophisticated medical institutions in urban areas. Rather

than better health for the average person, "improvement of health" tends to be equated with the provision of medical care dispensed by

growing numbers of specialists, using narrow medical technologies for the benefit of the privileged few. At the same time, access of

large segments of the world's population to health services is limited or non-existent; disadvantaged groups throughout the world have

no access to any permanent form of health care. These groups probably total four-fifths of the world's population, living mainly in

rural areas and urban slums.

In some countries, even though health facilities are located within easy reach, inability to pay or cultural taboos put them out of

bounds. To complicate matters, health systems are often devised outside the mainstream of social and economic development,

frequently restricting themselves to medical care, although industrialization and deliberate alteration of the environment are creating

health problems whose proper control lies far beyond the scope of medical care. Such services operate in an isolated manner,
neglecting other factors contributing to human wellbeing such as education, communications, agriculture, social organization,

community motivation and involvement. This ignores the fact that health cannot be attained by the health sector alone.

In developing countries in particular, economic development, anti-poverty measures, food production, water, sanitation,

housing, environmental protection and education all contribute to health and have the same goal of human development. The pace of

technological and economic development requires an intensified release of human energy, placing heightened importance on physical

stamina as a precondition. However, although the current diet upon which people exist may appear to be ample, it lacks the nutritional

balance to sustain regular participation in a modernized society. In addition, a whole complex of issues such as safe water,

refrigeration and basic hygiene remain relatively undeveloped and therefore continues to perpetuate illness that drains vitality. The

sheer number of people in the care of one doctor, the remoteness of proper medical facilities and the high cost of treatment prevent

early detection of disease; continuation of energy-draining low-grade infections results in either long-lasting or permanently chronic

defects. The care of the physical well-being of rural people when called upon to make such efforts at development is a crucial factor

that cannot be neglected.

INCIDENCE. Huge inequalities characterize the current picture of global health. In the Third World, health problems are

related to malnutrition, poverty and lack of access to basic needs. Health services in the developing countries have often been based on

European or North American models, centering on highly technological, cost-intensive urban hospitals focused on curative rather than

preventive health care. Conservative estimates of the annual cost of running a primary health care system give a figure of $12.50 per
person per year. However, the current level of expenditure on health care is less than $2 per person in many of the poorest countries.

About $50,000 million per year would need to be invested to develop primary health care systems in the developing countries.

CHAPTER III

Research Design
The research design that the researchers will use is the grounded theory because the researchers will enrich the past studies that
were conducted in the past. This study will give more classifications of the things that were not given the enlightenment using the
previous papers that were studied.
Respondent of the Study
The respondents of this study will be the people of Peñablanca who experienced health care services of the municipal Health
Office of Peñablanca.
Sampling Procedure
The quota and purposive sampling will be the sampling procedure that will de used in this study because the researchers will
ask the Peñablancenios whether they already availed the health care services of Municipal Health Office so that they can relate on the
things that the researchers are going to ask. Quota sampling is also chosen because the researchers need to meet the total number of
required respondents.
Research Instrument
Questionnaires will be the research instrument of this study. The questionnaire has two parts wherein the first part is about the
respondents’ profile and the second part will be the ratings of the respondents to the health care servces of the Municipal Health Office
of Peñablanca.
Data Collection Procedure
The researchers will do the following steps in collecting the data:
1. Make an approval letter that is to be addressed to the principal to ask for principal’s permission to let the researchers float
some questionnaires to the respondents. Make also an approval letter asking the permission of the personnel of the Municipal
Health Office to permit the researchers in observing and floating questionnaires in their vicinity.
2. Prepare the questionnaires to be floated to the respondents.
3. Ask for the permission of the respondents if they are wiling to answer the questionnaires given to them.
4. Ask the respondents to answer the questionnaires honestly
5. Tally the results of the respondents’ answers to the questions.
Data Analysis Procedure
The data on the questionnaire will be tallied and then the researchers will calculate for the average and percentage of the
respondents’ answers.