Sustainable healthcare gains momentum at 2nd Manila Bulletin Sustainability Focus Session

Leaders and health brands highlight how the industry is pushing for sustainability in the country

- By MAT T. RICHTER

Consuming less than what we produce without putting the world at stake helps sustain our shared home. Be mindful of your consumption habits and conserve what's left. These goals gun for one objective—to help the Earth regain its natural balance.

But did you know that sustainability isn’t limited to saving the environment? In the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, good health and wellbeing is included.

Unfortunately, despite efforts to establish accessible healthcare in the Philippines and other developing regions, it appears that the haves and no-haves are still inadvertently embroiled in an uphill battle for such access—the latter often losing.

Important health services, including immunization, pregnancy and newborn care, and treatment for communicable and noncommunicable diseases—tuberculosis, HIV, diabetes, and hypertension—are still out of reach for 782 million people in Western Pacific, nearly half of its population which includes Filipinos, according to World Health Organization.

A study by Ateneo de Manila University in late 2024 also found that there is health inequity in the country, calling for the need to address the rich-poor gap.

Policymakers need to reduce the discrepancy in healthcare access among socioeconomic classes and healthcare quality between public and private sectors, improve availability in far-flung areas, and reduce out-of-pocket expenditures, the study stressed.

Despite the grim figures, hope was felt when cheers for accessible and sustainable healthcare were heard during the second Manila Bulletin Sustainability Focus Session on Wednesday, April 30 at Dr. Robert C. Sy Grand Ballroom, University of Santo Tomas (UST) in Manila.