By Justine Irish D. Tabile, Reporter
THE GOVERNMENT needs to provide tax incentives and streamline the import process for key healthcare goods, the hospital industry said.
“The government is providing incentives for the tourism industry, so why not healthcare?” Private Hospitals Association of the Philippines, Inc. President Jose Rene de Grano told BusinessWorld.
He said tax incentives will ease the burden of acquiring capital-intensive hospital equipment.
“Actually, some of our smaller hospitals would like to expand, but there’s a lot of equipment needed, which is expensive, so they can’t do it,” he said.
“Public hospitals have the funding, but for private hospitals it is too expensive; even more for smaller hospitals,” he added.
He said smaller hospitals are also struggling with personnel costs.
“Salaries have been increasing, and while secondary and tertiary hospitals can do it, smaller hospitals cannot; they will close, and now they want to legislate wage increases; that will hurt a lot of industries,” he added.
He said that the government could also help the industry by reducing the tariffs for imported equipment.
“Before we used to import from Germany, the US, and the UK, but it has become too expensive” because of the duties, he added.
He said that only big hospitals can now afford to source equipment from Germany, adding that it has become too costly for smaller hospitals due to the high tariffs.
“I hope the tariffs are reduced so we can buy proper equipment,” he added.
He said he is hoping the Food and Drug Administration can streamline the import process for medical devices.
“Right now it takes months, sometimes even years,” he said.