Some Philippine hospitals offer free medical assistance to OFWs
Even former overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) who need medical assistance would be able to get this for free through the OFW Hospital and Diagnostic Centre in the Central Luzon province of Pampanga as well as through a few other government hospitals through which either the Department of Health or the Department of Migrant Workers has been able to secure partnerships with.
“Yes, of course,” guaranteed Migrant Workers Secretary Hans Leo Cacdac, adding that the primary answer is the “OFW Hospital in San Fernando City, Pampanga.”
The concern was raised after the primary reasons – developments on the safety and security on the high-risk and war-like zones elsewhere in the world – of Filipino seafarers – of the Friday morning press conference – were fully tackled.
“Even if the person were an OFW from the 20-kopong-kopong (Filipino slang for the forgotten distant time). It is free services or zero billing, upon the instructions of our President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. “
“Even if being an OFW only lasted for a month and the person shows a proof of being an OFW. The good news is that the direct ascendants or the parents and the direct descendants or the children of a current OFW are also our beneficiaries.”
“If you visit the hospital, you would see wheelchair-bound elderlies. They were not OFWs. They are either the mother or the father of OFWs,” Cacdac went on, adding that in his own visits, many of these patients proudly declared that their children have been working in “Abu Dhabi and Dubai.”
“It is only the proof of blood relations that we need.”
The project of the previous President Rodrigo Roa Duterte administration (June 2016-June 2022) began as a polyclinic and became fully operational in June 2022.
“It is a Level 2 hospital with 65 beds. For now, we do not perform heart surgery. But we can refer cases to nearby hospitals,” said Cacdac.
The Cancer Care Centre is undergoing construction, upon the directive of President Marcos Jr. Target opening date is 2027.
Since 2022, 200,000 OFWs, their parents and children, including 100 OFW new mothers and out-patients have been served.
Through DMW “efforts,” OFWs and their families in the Zamboanga Peninsula southwest of Mindanao are now being served through a partner hospital.
The same OFW Wards set-ups are expected to start any time soon in “Cebu and Davao.”
On the issue of overcrowded sharing accommodations in the UAE, Cacdac reminded: “We will abide by the UAE enforcement mechanism. OFWs must be in safe and humane living conditions. What we should be on the look-out for are if the affected OFWs need assistance in terms of finances, medical and work.”
Such has a “Philippine version.” It involves raided illegally-operated “unregistered” recruitment agencies wherein rescued were “500 recruits living in 40 over-crowded accommodations. It was already unfit for life.”
The crackdown continues. Cacdac said: “We cannot let our guard down. We cannot assume, even if there were only one illegal recruiter left, we cannot assume that that illegal recruiter would do no harm to our countrymen and overseas jobs applicants.”
“Our effort to close down all illegal recruitment agencies continues, until we have the last illegal recruiter shut down.”
Cacdac is grateful to Philippine Foreign Affairs Secretary Ma. Theresa Lazaro, Ambassador to the UAE Alfonso Ferdinand Ver and Consul General in Dubai and the Northern Emirates Ambrosio Brian Enciso III “for the very strong coordination with them” in the completion of tasks for the welfare and benefit of the nearly one million Filipinos in the UAE and their families – whether in the country or back home.
OFWs in need of financial, medical, work-related and repatriation assistance may contact MWO-Abu Dhabi or Dubai which has Facebook Pages. The hotline for the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration is 1348 and +6321348 “if you are in the UAE.”