As I mentioned in the most recent PM News, the clinic faced a major hurdle in October. While applying for a renewal of the clinic’s business/medical license and my Philippine Medical license, we came under close governmental scrutiny. This kind of scrutiny is not a judgement of how well you treat patients or a measure of the quality of care given; rather, it is often whether one person finds you favorable (or willing to pay to be found favorable). Our "roadblock" person was one of the local medical officials (the equivalent of a County medical society). She had previously indicated that she was very concerned that we were “foreigners” treating Filipino patients who would be better served by Filipino doctors. She was particularly concerned about any surgical procedures and the amount of follow-up that occurs after procedures. After much prayer, that official finally visited our clinic and was favorably impressed. Of course, the fact that we had a mutual physician friend who spoke with her prior to her visit helped, also. Not only did she give her approval but she offered to build cooperation between her Filipino indigent care and our clinic. She is a plastic surgeon and offers to repair cleft palates for the cost of the hospital supplies/fees. The total for an adult cleft palate repair being around $150 - 200. I view this as a positive event since I had hoped to build some types of relationship within the Filipino medical community.
You can alway download current and past issues of "The PM News" at:
http://philippinemission.com/services.html
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