These are patients who are stubborn when it comes to giving up habits that adversely affect their health like cigarette smoking or drinking alcohol. Some would shrug away the statistical facts presented to them. Facts that would scare most people, alluding to an imaginary grandfather who smoked cigarette until he died at the 100 years old because of old age.

On the other hand, there are chronically ill patients who treat their conditions as they would treat a headache. That is, they take their medicines as “needed” only. What’s funny is that the “need” arises from a gamut of complaints mostly unrelated to the illness itself.

A classic one is nape pain as a sign of elevated blood pressure. Only around 10 – 15% of hypertensive patients actually complain of headache.  In my practice most of these patients blood pressure are really not that high.  Ironically they are the ones who go to the doctor. A greater number of hypertensives are walking around without a complaint. I had a patient with a blood pressure of 250/130 mmHg who came to the clinic just to have his BP checked. So when told that his BP was very high, he matter-of-factly said that it was his “normal” blood pressure and walked away not bothering to get a prescription.

What is the root of all of these? Ignorance maybe – a lack of understanding of the true nature of their disease?  In this day & age of information technology and the existence of programs to educate patients, that should be the least of the reasons. Among other things I think, is the disregard for human life. The idea that you can do whatever you want with your body because it’s yours.  Utterly twisted! We are actually only stewards of everything we have here on earth and in the end we need to account to Him who is the giver of all.  Some may also have a feeling of  invincibility – that “bad things can happen only to other people, but not to me.”

Health is wealth so they say.  And even if it’s such a cliche, it is very true.  When we don’t take good care of our body it is not only our loss but the loss of those that love us. If the head of the family is so sick that he could not work, his family suffers.  His wife will have to work so they will have food to eat. His children will have to quit school because there’s no money to pay for school fees and someone would need to stay home to take care of him. Sick people especially those who are chronically ill are usually difficult to deal with, so his family will have to bear with the psychological burden of caring for him.  If they opt not to care for him, then they will have to deal with the guilt of abandoning him. Either way they suffer.

When we take good care of our health, it means we honor the life given to us and the Giver of this life.  It also means we are mindful of them who love and care for us.  Technically, it is your body- you can do whatever you want with it.  But whatever it is that you do, make sure you are ready for the consequences and you don’t leave “casualties of war” behind.

I am writing this to show my sentiments on the current issue that the Chief of Hospital of J.R. Borja General Hospital in the person of Dr. Dures Tagayuna received an order recalling her to the City Health Office.

What’s all the fuzz? Dr. Tagayuna has done more for the Hospital and it’s Personnel and Staff in the past 2 years she served as Chief of Hospital than any of her predecessors who served the same period. She was sweet-talked into running an almost dying institution probably not so much as to save it but more so in the hope of making her a political ally by the way things are going.

However, seeing that her being in her present office is not serving IT’S ORIGINAL PURPOSE but rather going in a different direction notwithstanding that direction is for the good of the institution and of it’s staff and clientele, she is being ordered to vacate her office in the pretense of being needed elsewhere for her leadership.

If the appointing office really believes in her capabilities as a leader, they will retain her in her present office and not put her at some imaginary station where she is supposed to be of better service. That reasoning may go unchallenged by the run of the mill folks whose loyalties can be easily bought by a handful of pesos but to expect the honest intelligent worker to believe that, is definitely an insult.

Dr. Tagayuna has her eye on the future of J.R. Borja General City Hospital. She hopes she can make a difference and leave a legacy for the succeeding generations of patients who will benefit from such changes. She is even willing to die for it but apparently others “entities” have set their sight on the hospital too and one can only wonder what they see.

What do they see? Do they see a leader who can bring the hospital to greater heights or do they see an obstacle to their own purposes? Do they see the health workers serving more than they are required to, under substandard condition, being exposed to communicable diseases with inadequate protection and no hazard fee? Or do they see sweatshops where they can cut down on benefits and save money for other projects? Do they see the father who is the breadwinner of the family laying sick in a worn out bed? Do they see the mother of 10 children taking care of a sick baby? Do they see a 10 year-old child wondering what he will do with the prescription in his hand because there is no medicine available in the hospital pharmacy? Or do they see that at least none of them are their fathers, neither their mothers, nor their sons nor their daughters? Do they see the sick who seek the comforts of the hospital or do they only see what the hospital can give back to the City?

Who took it upon themselves to be responsible for caring for the people? Do you? We at J.R. Borja General City Hospital do! That’s why we cannot just sit down and let anybody take away from us, a good leader who has given this hospital a direction. She boosted the staff’s morale that had been hanging low in the past several years and pulling her out means pulling everyone’s morale down.

If the goal is to make everyone subservient to the whims of a self-seeking power then the hope for change will be crushed. How long can one keep on banging his head against the wall if the wall does not give in? Until he finds another way to survive without banging his head on the wall.

I have worked in the hospital for almost three years now. With my training, I thought I could make a difference. On my own I found out I could not. It took the presence of a passionate leader to help realize some of those hopes. Suddenly, going to work is not so much of a burden anymore knowing what we are doing is not going to waste. While we still lack equipment to give the most basic of services, while we are still short on supplies, while some of our basic benefits are still not given to us, we can work thinking, all those problems are workable and someday the solutions will be found by the right person/s with the right attitude.

Health should be a priority that is not affected by biases, pride, and powerplay. Dr. Dures Tagayuna is the man for the job as Chief of the J.R. Borja General City Hospital. Remove her from the helm and the hospital will be like a ship without a Captain, driven wherever the wind fancies it to go. If you want to save the hospital put Dr. Tagayuna at the helm.

DR. RICHEL BACOT
Medical Officer IV
J.R. Borja General Hospital
Cagayan de Oro City
Mindanao