Integrated Clinical Clerkship in Emergency Medicine AY 2021- 2022

Prehospital care is an essential part of emergency healthcare which involves medical personnel who are trained to immediately identify the problem, evaluate the situation, and determine the necessary resources, and proper coordination among dispatch centers, ambulances, hospitals, and/or specialized health centers. This is especially necessary to save the lives of patients who suffer from life-threatening illnesses. In the documentary, we saw that almost none of the components of prehospital care could be found in Bansud, Oriental Mindoro, where many of the people were malnourished and suffering from various diseases. To get to the nearest health center, patients and their caregivers had to travel on foot or via "ambulasya de paa," a duyan which was carried on foot, for several hours on muddy and unpaved roads. Due to this, many of these people have never been to a health center and only went once the disease became very severe. Some patients even died on the way. Besides the difficulty of transport, there was a lack of medical personnel. For example, there was only one doctor for a for a population of 3000, whereas a barangay health worker had to traverse five mountains to get to the community. While the local government realized that the solution to these health issues would be to improve infrastructure and pave the roads, the lack of funding from the national government made them unable to carry out these plans. Furthermore, the lack of finances serves another impediment toward giving proper healthcare. Thus, patients with treatable diseases such as tuberculosis, or conditions requiring emergency care such as burns, diarrhea, or dehydration, reach severe stages or even die before being able to receive proper care. This documentary highlighted that the solution to these health problems does not lie solely in giving medicines, but in improving the economy, infrastructure, accessibility of health centers, and increasing the number of trained medical personnel.