UPON seeing patients admitted at the Philippine General Hospital (PGH) with only coins to pay their hospital bills, a Thomasian doctor dreamt and sought to change this status quo.
And because of that dream, Lingkod ER was brought to life 10 years ago.
“Before Lingkod ER was brought to UST, it started back in UP (University of the Philippines) Manila, where Dr. Luisa Tecson took up her pre-med,” said UST Lingkod ER president Monica Perez. “The story even goes that because of the small size of PGH, some patients were treated while sitting on a monoblock.”
After taking her pre-med, Tecson transferred to UST to pursue medical studies. Along with her transfer, she brought the cause of Lingkod ER to the auspices of the University.
Despite starting with only 10 members at her class in UP, including Tecson herself, it now boasts of more than 200 student members in UST alone.
The organization is also affiliated to and helps patients from PGH, Quirino Memorial Medical Center in Quezon City, and Corazon Locsin Montelibano Regional Hospital in Bacolod City.
Lingkod ER mainly gives financial assistance to patients who need it.
The organization provides financial assistance ranging from P5,000 to P20,000 to patients in need.
“The financial aid only helps the patients in paying for their medical tests, such as X-rays and Citi scans, but the money is never really used to pay for the medicine,” Perez said.
Perez said the patients that they help are usually babies who get burned.
“The pictures of people and families we have helped are posted in the Charity ward of the UST Hospital,” she said.
The UST-based Lingkod ER, however, does not only give financial aid to patients in the UST Hospital’s clinical division, but also gives health-related lectures to communities “after seeing that giving financial assistance is not enough.”
The patients of the charity ward are also rewarded with lectures, especially those who have undergone traumatic cases.
“Patients who get stab wounds, lacerations, or are involved in car accidents, are usually the ones who get the seminar,” she said.
The organization also regularly takes lecture tours to slums and depressed areas in Quezon City and Manila and nearby provinces like Laguna and Rizal.
Despite having similarities to UST’s National Service Training Program, she said the difficult part in their medical missions is teaching without the use of visual aids or a laptop computer.
“However, the real challenge comes in understanding the subject matter that we teach because it might not come out right when we lecture it,” Perez said.
She added that their lecture plan consists of three parts: teaching the audience about symptoms of the disease, prevention, and cure. The lessons vary depending on the month, such as the breastfeeding month and HIV month, or depending on the prevalent disease during a particular season.
The lectures usually last a whole day but may extend depending on the nature of the topic.
“The Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) and ABS-CBN help in the projects that we conduct,” Perez said.
ABS-CBN’s Teaching, Learning, and Caring (TLC) Project always works hand in hand with Lingkod ER. The said network also brings volunteer doctors for their projects.
They also sometimes invite other medical groups in their medical missions, Perez said.
“The TLC project has been a big help to us because they provide the means of transportation of our organization,” she said. “Not to mention the safety that they too provide to our organization.”
For the sake of credentials?
Sadly, Perez said that despite having a large number of members, only a handful of people would want to volunteer in their medical missions.
She said that it saddens her because some of the members of UST’s Lingkod ER barely volunteer when they need them.
“Knowing that pre-med students use Lingkod ER for their recommendations to the Faculty of Medicine [and Surgery], it pains me to give membership card to students who do not even participate in the medical missions,” she said. “Because the medical mission is done on Sundays [normally twice a month], we are really thankful for the members who volunteer. It’s usually us (officers) who volunteer because it’s a burden if no one goes to the site.”
She said that although those things happen, the best part in being a member of Lingkod ER is in the knowledge that one has helped someone.
“The feeling or experience of volunteering is different; the sacrifices I make is always fulfilling because I get to help people,” she said.
Perez recalled a frightening experience when an old man approached to ask for food but later on changed his mind.
“Knowing that my volunteers will not give their lunch to the old man, I gave mine but he refused, insinuating at us that we were just giving our share because we’re already fortunate,” she said. Antonio Ramon H. Royandoyan
