Botika sa Kapilya aims to improve the health care delivery system of very poor, marginalized families living in the Upper Pulangi, a rural area of Bukidnon Province, as well as other areas. The program, through Fr. Tex Paurom, SJ, addresses acute medical illnesses (injuries, infections and the like) by providing medical diagnoses and medicines with the Church, as a base station. Hence, the name, Botika sa Kapilya.
Treatment and medication for these families who live very far from health centers, can be quite expensive since they have to travel to Malaybalay city to get treatment and buy medication.
Consider these costs in 2012 for two persons ( the sick person and a companion) in the table below:
| Fare 70 pesos x 2 ways x 2 persons | Php | 280 |
| Multicab fare from bus terminal to the hospital | 40 | |
| Consultation Fee | 500* | |
| Food for two persons (breakfast, snacks, lunch) | 250 | |
| Laboratory Fees—500-1000 | 750** | |
| Prescription Medicine | 1250*** | |
| Total | 3,070 | |
| *Php 300-500, **Php 500-1000, ***Php 1000-1500 |
Fr. Tex, has shown that we can reduce health costs by situating the Botika within the infrastructure of the Church. He elaborates further in an interview conducted by Windhover in 2012:
“Windhover: How does this system work? What services do you provide?
Doc Tex: Botika is designed to complement and collaborate with the health related efforts of the Local Government focusing on poor residents of rural areas – with special emphasis on the Indigenous People — not regularly accessed by the local health units. The program primarily aims at responding to their acute medical health care needs by empowering Chapel based volunteer health workers in managing simple acute medical conditions and, within their felt competence, institute interventions using medicines in the medical box which our program provides.
Thanks to communications technology, a licensed physician can easily be consulted by the trained, locally-based volunteer health-worker using mobile communication.
The economic impact of an acute health condition can be staggering to a family with no budget for health (as the case for most Filipino families!) As we know, health and poverty is very much intertwined. Providing them BotikasaKapilya will eliminate at least half the necessary expenses involved with treating acute medical conditions (e.g. transportation, consultation, and food costs) and can help alleviate their current economic difficulties.
Windhover: What are the challenges and difficulties for such a program?
Doc Tex: Sustainability is the word that is put at the end of every sentence regarding this program. The health workers need to be empowered. This implies 4-6x seminar training per year.
One of the most challenging things also is the actual operation or management of the Botika. We arestill experimenting drug pricing schemes that will make the program both sustainable and affordable to the needy. However, since this is a charitable program, I instructed that in emergent or urgent situations, the Medicine Box is “opened”(payment to be discussed later.) We know that this will result to bad debts and easily depletes the small capital, thus the need to regularly subsidize the Botika system from funds from generous benefactors – but this is a small price to pay for providing medical care that can at times save lives and prevent already poor families from sliding into tragically desperate conditions.
The medical box containing 3,000-5,000 pesos worth of medicines is loaned to the chapel. The chapel owns it. The Empowered Health Worker manages it and gives status reports to the chapel officers during their monthly meeting. So far I continue to infuse capital into the Botika to keep supplies coming. (Thanks to very generous benefactors).
Windhover: Speaking of benefactors, how is the program currently being supported? How can readers of the Windhover (friends of the PJAA) help?
Doc Tex: Currently, the pilot phase of this project – involving the residents of upper Pulangi under the parish of Our Lady: Mary, Mediatrix of all Grace – is funded by the J. Homer Butler Foundation of Staten Island in New York, to whom we are terribly grateful.
But already we are seeing the possibility of replicating the project throughout the Diocese of Malaybalay. Bishop Jose Cababntan, DD is very supportive of the project and is keen to see it spread. Currently, we are generating and collecting data for study and analysis. The aim is to come out with a template that can be applied to other areas with same context as upper Pulangi.
Already, other Jesuits like Fr. Ogie Cabayao,SJ of Cabanglasan and Fr. Mat Sanchez, SJ of Miarayon are asking if this program be extended to their parishes. Plans are underway to start a “soft” opening in their parishes. And so any further support from individuals and groups will be most welcome.
Windhover: How much does it cost, more or less to get the program going in a chapel?
Doc Tex: We are doing the numbers now and tracking expenses (given that we have not been in operation for that long). But roughly the cost of sponsoring the start-up for one chapel amounts to around only PhP 10,000. This would be enough to cover for the medicine box and its contents, a basic medical kit (with Sphegmomanometer, Stethoscope, weighing scale, thermometer, tape measure and Journal). Around P5,000 can cover for the training needs of several chapels for the entire year. This would mainly be transportation fare and food expenses for the participant health workers and resource persons. And Php 3,000 will be enough to fund the cost of mobile communications of one Botika , making on-call volunteer doctors accessible to the health worker via celfone for at least 6 months.
Windhover: What other things have become crucial to the success of the program?
Doc Tex: One thing is the “infrastructure” that Catholic Parish-Chapel system provides. This is a stable structure through which we regularly reach far-flung communities on difficult terrain. If a community, no matter how far flung, is part of the Parish-Chapel system, this means that they are regularly visited by a priest or Church worker. These visits are what this program maximizes for the distribution of medicines and regularity of communication. In this system is also the trust and indigenous knowledge that has been key to a successful start.
Creativity in maximizing local resources would be second. And lastly, compassion. Over and above the competence and experience of the volunteer doctors and health workers, the awareness of the context and being in the know of the situation in rural areas, and the ability to empathize, although a tall order of qualities of the back-up physician, spell a great difference.”
Reference:
Paurom, Tex. MD. SJ. “Botika sa Kapilya: Frontiers in Health Care”, Windhover. 3 .2012: 32-36. Print.
