Deadly road to health care: rural poor elderly patients accessing Philippine General Hospital

Abstract

The developing world is going grey. Like most developing nations, the Philippines is a country in transition to demographic aging. With that, the needs of the older population including health is also growing. Despite the fact that the country implemented several enabling laws and policies for the welfare of Filipino elderly, the said sector still encounter several problems on healthcare. The rural poor elderlies are deprived of access to healthcare as product of the following reasons: being old, being poor, being sick, and living in rural areas. The primary objective of this study is to document and understand the kinds of struggles (such as political, economic, social, physical etc. struggles) that a rural poor Filipino elderly experience as he/she access healthcare using the Philippine General Hospital as a case study. It also intends to examine the legal frame of the government for the elderly and understand how its existing implementation in PGH affects their access to healthcare.