Pre-hospital care is an essential part of our healthcare system, as it is lifesaving in most cases. This is seen across different healthcare systems across the world, from urban areas which avail services from EMS such as ambulances, first responder personnel during natural and manmade disasters, to rural, far-flung areas which provide basic primary care with their scarce resources before and while being transported to health facilities with appropriate resources to tend those in need, especially patients with acute to chronic life-threatening conditions. Given that we live in an archipelagic country, some geographically isolated distant areas (GIDA) have little to no access in healthcare as seen in the iWitness documentary “Ambulansyang De Paa”. Regardless of the situation, it is warranted that the population must be seen by a healthcare professional before availing services which might not be available in this specific GIDA, as health is a basic human right.
Ideally, these resources should be available to the population residing in these areas so that there is equitable healthcare access even among GIDAs. However, with the scarce allocation of resources in our country which is an unfortunate reality, the healthcare professionals and even the community providing pre-hospital care have been trying to make ends meet for these patients. For the lack of infrastructures such as roads and vehicles especially those in mountainous areas, people opt to go on foot and carry the patient via a hammock or a stretcher just to bring the patient in a more accessible area to be transported to a medical facility and be treated. Some health professionals also go on foot by themselves or using a motorcycle with their backpack full of medications and essential equipment to go on GIDAs with little to no access to healthcare and provide pre-hospital care. Others, with no resources at all resort to traditional and alternative methods without being seen by a doctor, let alone a health professional. Eventually, these people meet their demise due to these factors which should have been addressed by agencies other than the health sector. This proves that health is multifactorial, and problems from other sectors that have not been addressed also affect the health sector, which makes these problems systemic and must be addressed sooner rather than later. Proper budget allocation, infrastructures built for the use of the people, and more human resources with adequate pay and support are only a few of the possible solutions to address these problems to provide better healthcare, specifically pre-hospital care among populations residing in GIDAs.