The reported move allowing PhilHealth members to be admitted to vacant pay ward beds in government hospitals is not a new policy but an existing practice that has long been allowed and should already be standard procedure, according to Senate Minority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano.
“Sometimes the problem is not the absence of a new policy but the failure to use what is already allowed,” Cayetano said, following reports that PhilHealth members may now be admitted to pay wards without additional charges when basic wards are already full.
This development traces back to questions he raised last year during the Senate deliberations on the proposed 2026 budget of the Department of Health (DOH).
During the budget debate, Cayetano asked Health Secretary Teodoro Herbosa about the practice of leaving pay ward beds vacant even when basic wards are already at full capacity, particularly in large government hospitals.
“If you go to PGH or any other government hospital at puno ang basic ward, ano ang remedy ng pasyente? Kung may bakante na pay ward, hindi ba pwedeng gamitin iyon?” he said.
Herbosa responded that patients may indeed be accommodated in pay wards if these are vacant, especially during congestion, but admitted that the practice depends on individual hospital policies.
When Cayetano asked whether the practice was being applied across all government hospitals, Herbosa acknowledged the lack of uniformity and signaled openness to formalizing it.
“Y’ung ibang hospitals ginagawa. That’s a hospital-by-hospital policy. But this is a good suggestion. Pwede kong i-circularize para sa lahat ng DOH hospitals,” the health chief said.
Cayetano stressed that government hospitals are mandated to maximize all available resources, especially during periods of overcrowding, so that no patient is turned away or left waiting simply because basic wards are full while pay wards remain unused.
He added that the development shows how existing provisions often go unutilized without oversight, emphasizing the need for consistent implementation across government hospitals. ###
