OBJECTIVE: To describe the health human resource needs of government hospitals in the Philippines.
METHODS: All 733 licensed government hospitals were included in a survey except 75 of them which the Department of Health have been deploying medical specialists and medical officers to augment the needs of these 75 hospitals.
RESULTS: A total of 96 government hospitals responded to the self-administered survey questionnaire sent to them. Analysis showed 20% to 29% among the level 2, level 3 and level 4 hospital responders have their Chief of Hospitals still without a master's education degree as required by the Department of Health. Fifty-nine percent (59%) of all hospitals do not have nearby medical educational institutions while 28% of them do not have nearby nursing educational institutions.The greatest need, however, is in the adequacy of the number of doctors and nurses. The minimum required number of doctors and nurses has not been met based on the staffing pattern standards set by the Department of Health for the different hospital categories and by the required 40 work hours per week set for civil servants.
CONCLUSION: The decline in the adequate number of health human resources noted to start when local public hospitals were devolved from the national government to the local government units in 1991. With this inadequacy, one cannot expect these public hospitals to provide even fair quality of hospital care; thus, the need for the national government to intervene.

Human ; Local Government ; Federal Government ; Philippines ; Specialization ; Hospitals, Public ; Physicians ; Licensure ; Health Personnel

This article describes the partnership between the College of Public Health, University of the Philippines Manila and the province of Laguna in the context of implementation of the field practice course. This partnership paved the way for the development and implementation of projects in seven field practice sites. Projects concentrated mainly on improving quality of data and health information system, development of educational materials, and addressing health problems such as tuberculosis, hypertension and rabies. After the implementation of the various activities, there is a need for both parties (the College of Public Health and the Provincial Health Office of Laguna) to monitor and evaluate if projects have been sustained. Moreover, successful projects must also be fully documented which can serve as models for other areas in the province of Laguna.

Human ; Rabies ; Health Information Systems ; Public Health ; Tuberculosis ; Quality Improvement ; Universities ; Teaching Materials ; Hypertension

INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVE

Periodontitis is highly prevalent worldwide, and previous investigations have reported increased prevalence and severity among elderly. Regular monitoring of dental health, which includes periodontal conditions, has been recommended by the Philippine Department of Health, as basis for the development and updating of policies and laws that will address the public health problem of periodontal disease among the ageing Filipino population. Therefore, this present study aimed to determine the prevalence and severity of periodontal disease among Filipino older adults who participated in the Focused Interventions for Frail Older Adults Research and Development Program (FITforFRAIL) study.

METHODS

This study on the periodontal status of Filipino older adults is a cross-sectional substudy of the FITforFRAIL research of the Institute on Aging, National Institutes of Health, University of the Philippines Manila. Participants aged ≥ 60 years were from four identified geographical regions in the Philippines. Three hundred sixteen completed oral health assessment, which included full mouth periodontal recording, and 183 participants were eligible for inclusion in the periodontal component. Periodontal diagnoses were determined using the Centers for Disease Control-American Academy of Periodontology (CDC-AAP) case definitions for surveillance of periodontitis and the 2018 European Federation of Periodontology (EFP)/AAP classification. Descriptive statistics (frequency, percentage, and mean) were used to report the sociodemographic characteristics and periodontal diagnoses of the participants. The clinical periodontal measures used to indicate the extent and severity of periodontitis were presented as mean [standard error (SE)] or percentage (SE).

RESULTS

Using the CDC/AAP case definitions, majority (97.3%) were diagnosed with periodontitis, with 33.3% having severe periodontal destruction. On the other hand, based on the 2018 EFP/AAP classification, all participants had periodontitis and most (94.5%) presented with severe disease. Moreover, using the latter classification system, the percentage of severe periodontitis was observed to increase with age. Among the young-old, 93.1% had severe disease, while 94.1% of the middle-old and 100% of the oldest-old were found to have severe destruction.

CONCLUSION

Based on the results of the study, the prevalence of total and severe periodontitis is high among this sample of Filipino older adults. Future studies for regular monitoring of the oral health of Filipino older adults are recommended.

Human ; Middle Aged: 45-64 Yrs Old ; Aged: 65-79 Yrs Old ; Geriatrics ; Aged ; Periodontal Diseases ; Prevalence ; Philippines