Doctors who MIND

(Below is a reproduction of an e-mail sent by Dr. Willie T. Ong of the doctors' advocacy group MIND.)

Hi friends,

Greetings to a prosperous New Year.

I have some good news for our doctors and medical students. Just for everybody's information: The Medical Malpractice Bills are dead! The Osmena Bill and Villar Bill did NOT pass.There will be NO malpractice insurance. NO jail term for doctors.

Thanks and congratulations to the efforts of doctors in the medical societies, the NGO's and individual doctors who pitched in too. If you talked about malpractice, if you wrote an article, if you organized a forum, then we all deserved a commendation.

Even Ms. Korina Sanchez has admitted defeat that their group cannot pass the Malpractice bill. So this is really the GOOD news you won't see in our headlines.

What the PMA is now working at is the Patient's Rights Bill (less harsh) and some sticky provisions therein. This is according to PMA Secretary General Dr Rey Melchor Santos.

I believe the continuous barrage of news stories in the media has turned the tide and thinking of our politicians. News about the brain drain and hospitals closing made our politicians think twice before passing this malpractice bill.

Another good news for doctors is that powerful people in the media have become advocates for doctors. You can see more positive front page news about doctors staying, medical tourism, “barefoot doctors” trained in the community, etc. Many people are now aware of the problem and are on our side.

On our end, for 2005, we have been touring the different medical schools. I have lectured in 11 medical schools so far on topics such as “How to get ahead in medicine”, “Finding your niche in medicine” and “Testmanship: How to pass exams without studying.”

Since October of 2005, a heaven-sent opportunity came up. We are now producing and hosting a Cable TV health show. Simply put, it’s a purely public service program. (Our medical leaders agree that TV is the weakest point in their advocacy.)

If you have time, check out our TV show at RJTV (Sky 19, Home 19, Destiny 79) every Fridays 5 PM to 6 PM with myself, Dra. Liza and Dr Philip Cruz as hosts. We also have an interactive health show from 6 PM to 6:30 PM, where patients can ask their questions live on the air and get free advice. We also have replays on Saturdays from 7 AM to 8 AM.

So far, we have guested majority of our medical leaders in the Philippine Medical Association, Philippine College of Surgeons, Philippine College of Physicians and others… We have given airtime to our leaders to spread their advocacies, all for free, no strings attached. We have no drug ads whatsoever, no sponsorship whatsoever, no secret deals. It’s just helping.

I believe it’s time to uplift the quality of our media, so we can give honest, objective and scientific advice to our patients (and NOT based on what advertisers want).

Just like the MIND meetings, I thank my parents again, and my sister Julie Ong-Alonzo and brother-in-law Mr. Tecson Alonzo for pitching in and helping us with the costs of producing a weekly TV show.

Here are our other plans for 2006:

(1) Opening of Philippine Medical Museum at Pasay City by March or April 2006.
(2) MIND meet by May 2006.

My sincerest thanks to all the hundreds of e-mails, comments and suggestions I have received in the past year, both here and abroad. Thank you friends for spreading the good news.

Finally, some brotherly advice. I would just like to say that it pays to keep a positive outlook and surely good things will come if we start looking at how to help others. Only when we give, will we start to receive. And God will return all the blessing back to us a hundred-fold.

God bless.


Your friends,

Willie and Liza


P.S. Log on to our MIND blog at http://mind.pinoy.md for more info.