By Nel B. Andrade
Antipolo City — Public hospitals managed by the Rizal provincial government are set to gradually phase out medical devices containing mercury within the next few weeks as the purchase of non-mercurial thermometers and sphygmomanometers are under way.
This developed after Rizal Governor Casimiro “Jun” Ynares III directed the provincial health office (PHO) to include the procurement of non-mercurial apparatus for the use of five government hospitals in the province in its second quarter purchase.
The hospitals run by the provincial government are the Rizal Provincial Hospital in Morong; Angono General Hospital in Angono; Pililla Medical Hospital in Pililla; Ynares Municipal Hospital in Binangonan; and the Antipolo District Hospital in Antipolo City.
Dr. Hermogenes Certeza, PHO I and concurrent Antipolo District Hospital director, told the Manila Bulletin that the budget for the purchase of the required non-mercurial devices will come from the maintenance and operating expenses of the PHO.
Department of Health Administrative Order 21 mandates the gradual phase-out of mercury in all Philippine health care facilities and institutions by September 11, 2010.
Hospitals are mandated to strictly follow the guidelines on how the gradual phase out of mercurial devices will be done.
Earlier in February, in a meeting between a non-government organization, Health Care Without Harm-South East Asia (HCWH) and Health Secretary Esperanza Cabral, the Department of Health presented a six-point agenda to a mercury-free Philippines.
Among these are the non-issuance of permit to medical devices distributors to sell mercury thermometers and sphygmomanometers;and an information dissemination on the provisions of AO 21 to local government units who are managing the barangay health units, rural health units, city heath and municipal, district and provincial hospitals.
It also calls for a follow-up on the release of the 2009 General Appropriations Act P13.2-million allocation for the purchase of non-mercurial devices for 66 government-controlled hospitals; follow-up on the state of the more than 20 student victims of mercury poisoning in St. Andrew’s School in Parañaque in 2006; continuation of the program to replace mercury devices in hospitals; and ban of mercury importation in the country.
The PHO official said the September 21 deadline for the gradual phase out is doable as hospitals here are fully aware of the administrative order.
The first batch of PHO officials and hospital personnel had attended the regional conference organized by the HCWH on the phase out of mercurial devices earlier.