When
she was President, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo gave the medical tourism industry
her full backing and invited foreigners to come to the Philippines for health
and wellness services with the warm touch of Filipino hospitality.
Today, Mrs. Arroyo is waging wars in courts
and in the news media so she can be allowed to travel to several countries to
seek medical care she claims cannot be had even at St. Luke's Medical Center in
Taguig -- one among a few Philippine hospitals with international accreditation
-- where she is confined and held under court-approved hospital arrest.
Arroyo approved the 2004-2010 Medium-Term
Philippine Development Plan, which included the promotion of medical services
among her administration's strategic priorities. She signed Executive Order 372
in October 2004 to provide the means for investors to set up medical tourism
operations.
Arroyo also pushed for and signed into law the
National Tourism Policy Act of 2009, which revamped the tourism policy
infrastructure and still included medical tourism as a priority.
She also graced the inauguration of various
modern medical facilities, including St. Luke's and a wellness center in Subic,
and touted the country as a medical tourism destination.
She now claims that the medical expertise she
needs for her endocrinal, orthopedic, and neurological conditions are absent in
the medical tourism sector she worked so hard to boost during the
administration.
Elena Bautista-Horn, chief of staff and
spokesperson of the Pampanga Representative, said Arroyo's aides had asked Dr.
Leo Olarte, an orthopedic surgeon, if he had done a tetracycline bone biopsy
before and according to her, Olarte had not.
Bautista-Horn said the Arroyo family prefers
to get a specialist with prior experience in the particular type of bone biopsy
they are seeking for the former President.
GMA News’ Ruth Cabal interviewed Dr. Leo
Olarte, a Governor of the Philippine Medical Association’s Metro Manila
Chapter, for the newscast State of the Nation with Jessico Soho.
“Meron tayong kumpletong, sapat na mga
espesyalista dito. In fact tayo nga ay nagpo-promote ng medical tourism at
marami tayong pasyente abroad na pumupunta dito sa ating bayan na
nagpapagamot," Dr. Olarte said.
“Hindi po risky ang bone biopsy. That is a
minor procedure na ginagawa. Mga 30 minutes lang po ‘yan," added Olarte.
GMA News was able to obtain a copy of the
medical abstract and other documents Arroyo’s lawyers submitted to the Supreme
Court.
Olarte examined the scans of the cervical
spine of Mrs. Arroyo and said the recent surgeries on the former president were
successful. He also said the medical abstract shows Arroyo is recovering well
from the surgeries done at St. Luke's.
St. Luke's Medical Center has two hospitals--
one in Quezon City and a new one in Taguig. It is one of only four medical
institutions in the country accredited by the Joint Commission International,
which accredits hospitals in the United States and worldwide. The other three
are Makati Medical Center, The Medical City, and the Chong Hua Hospital in Cebu
City.
When Mrs. Arroyo tried but failed to leave the
country last week to purportedly seek expert medical care, her camp said that
Arroyo had an appointment for a “needle or open biopsy" at the Mount
Elizabeth Hospital in Singapore.
Medical tourism is a multi-billion peso
industry and business tycoon Manuel V. Pangilinan knows this all too well.
Through his flagship local holding firm, Metro Pacific Investments Corp.
(MPIC), Pangilinan has committed billions of pesos to create a nationwide
network of at least 15 medical centers.
MPIC now has six leading local hospitals,
including Asian Hospital Inc., where Mrs. Arroyo was confined in July 2009 for
some medical procedures.
To acquire 57 percent control of Asian
Hospital, MPIC committed to shell out P1.456 billion. Pangilinan and MPIC are
looking for nine more medical centers to modernize all over the country.
EARL VICTOR ROSERO
GMA News
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