Awe-inspiring: LJM and NKTI

Byline: Solita Collas-Monsod

There are very few people that I hold in awe. Letty J. Magsanoc was one of them. We were not
close-you can't get close to someone of whom you are in awe.

Why did I hold her in such high esteem? Because to me she represented journalism at its best.
She epitomized the fearless in this paper's motto: balanced news, fearless views. She wasn't
afraid of the powerful, the wealthy, the elite-they were all fair game to her, as attested to by the
many exposes of the Inquirer. If she could take on presidents (as in Erap Estrada at his most
powerful), and win, she could take on anyone. She was one of a kind.

Of course she knew the limits, but they were few and far between. And because of that, she was
a great pader-the newspaper owners could credibly point to her as having the last word on
editorial policy, and knowing her, anyone who wanted to influence that policy would just have to
grin and bear it.

A mutual friend called her management style a combination of authoritarianism and motherly
compassion. And that's how she could get away with the irreverence she showed to the powers
that be.

Her loss is actually not just the Inquirer's loss, but the news industry's loss, and the country's loss.

Letty, you are missed. And more so now, when the country is at a crossroads. Wish you were
still here to help inform our decisions.

It happens right under our noses, and we don't even know about it. Remember the public-private
partnerships? They've been given a hard time, and rightly so, because their progress has been
lethargic, and the local private partners seem to be using the scheme as a way to increase their
control of the economy, at great profit to themselves. Well, there is one PPP in the Philippines
that doesn't fall under that description, and in fact was recognized in 2014 as one of the 40 best
PPPs in the world.

That is the National Kidney and Transplant Institute (NKTI) Hemodialysis Project, which was
among the top 10 projects in the East Asia, Pacific and South Asia region. Who did the
recognition? The World Bank Group, the International Finance Corporation, and the
Infrastructure Journal. For what was this project recognized? It was recognized for being
financially successful, technologically innovative, developmental, and a model for similar health
projects in the Philippines.

Hemodialysis is the medical term for kidney dialysis. And the NKTI Hemodialysis Center's
impact and relevance to the needs of the populace, and the huge number
of patients with kidney failure who have benefited from the project, are a milestone for the
country. It is the best hemodialysis facility in the Philippines today. The facility has a 31-station
outpatient unit and a 12-station inpatient unit running 24/7, accommodating more than
120 hemodialysis patients per day. Its success has led to the project continuing, through
competitive bidding, from 2003 until today.

That's not all I found out about the NKTI. According to a report from the Collaborative
Transplant Study, a global registry for organ transplantation based in the University of
Heidelberg in Germany, Manila ranks No. 5 in terms of number of kidney grafts performed
among 205 transplant centers around the world, with the NKTI as the only reporting center for
Manila (the other countries have as many as eight transplant sites or eight transplant hospitals).
That has to be notable. What about equipment and technology? Apparently, the NKTI's
equipment compares with the best in the world.

And where does it get the resources it needs to maintain its three-fold mission of service (a 315-
bed hospital, soon to be 320, also state-of-the-art), training and research? That's another amazing
thing. It is first of all a government corporation, so it can operate like a business. The
government subsidy in 2014 amounted to only P229 million; the NKTI gets the rest from
hospital income (P2.4 billion). And yet its charges are much less than a private hospital (for
example: Dialysis in the latter might cost P60,000; in NKTI it would come up to P35,000).

Moreover, its quantified free services (to senior citizens, persons with disability, government
employees, charity) are subsidized by the government to the tune of 43 centavos for every peso
of QFS. The NKTI's internally generated revenue from private patients takes care of the other 57
centavos.

How many patients are we talking about? Around 15,000 in 2014; of that number, 30 percent
were charity cases.

Reader, you have before you a well-run government corporation (almost an oxymoron) that is
not a drain on government coffers. Patients who go there are amazed that it is a government
hospital: It looks and smells like a first-class private hospital.

But more is yet to come. It graduated this year 40 residents and fellows (part of its training
program), who come from all over the Philippines and presumably will go back whence they
came. That makes over 600 specialists the NKTI has trained since its inception 32 years ago.
And Dr. Dante Dator, the executive director, has a map of the Philippines which shows exactly
where those people are now. Serving the Filipino people. Aside from Vietnamese, Nepali, and
Indonesians who are now the top in their field abroad.

By the way, the NKTI was headed for years by Enrique Ona, the former health secretary who
was so badly treated by the government he served so well. Dator should be considered for the
health portfolio by the next president. His management skills are considerable. But please don't
treat him badly.
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