ACCESS TO ESSENTIAL MEDICINES OF HOUSEHOLDS IN SELECTED ECO TOURISM BARANGAYS IN PUERTO P RINCESA CITY, PALAWAN, PHILIPPINES

Abstract

Puerto Princesa welcomed around half a million tourists in 2011 making Tourism Industry the leading source of the City Government‘s income; thus, there is a need to protect the eco-tourism communities. By making sure community residents have access to their basic rights and needs, including the right to health, tourists‘ basic rights and needs are likewise guaranteed. To describe the access to essential medicines of Barangays Iwahig, Sta. Lourdes, Bacungan, Tagabinet and Cabayugan, descriptive quantitative research was utilized. The most accessible health facility or providers are the public health dispensary, traditional healer, and drug seller. Most of the households get selected medicines for free at the public health facility. They believe medicines are more expensive at private pharmacies than at public health facilities and that they can usually afford the medicines they need, considering how long they need to take the medicine and how much it costs. Moreover, they will not obtain prescribed medicines even if their insurance reimbursed part of the cost, primarily because the majority‘s health insurance doesn‘t cover out-patient medications. Majority of the household members who were acutely ill sought a doctor or nurse as the source of information about medicine, and got their medicines from private pharmacies. Medicines available at home are mostly over-the-counter medicines for acute illness. Researchers conclude that essential medicines are not accessible for the households of the selected eco-tourism barangays. This poses great hazard not only for permanent residents of the selected communities, but also to tourists. Should tourists need essential medicines, over-the-counter medicines can be given by the households, but if it‘s a chronic one, tourists have to travel by foot or vehicle for more than one hour to reach the nearest health facility where both the prescriber and source of medicine are available.