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Innovation in a Time of Crisis
When the government shut down all public transportation to contain COVID-19, health care workers who relied on public transportation could not get to work. This, along with ensuring sufficient personal protective equipment for hospital staff, was among the many problems that Dr Raffy and his colleagues had to solve at the Philippine General Hospital (PGH). Taking inspiration from exemplary programs in Melbourne, he led the hospital's bike program, which assigned bicycles to PGH's health workers, and organised shuttle services for those who needed an alternative mode of transportation during the community quarantine.
Raffy also worked on two important frameworks which helped to structure the early phases of the Philippines' fight against COVID-19. One is a blueprint for mass testing of COVID-19 in the Philippines developed with and for the Department of Health; the other is a concept for an innovative modular type benefits package for the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) to consider, aiming to accommodate the nuances and unknowns of COVID-19 care.
Long before the crisis, Raffy has been working in different parts of the country through the University of the Philippines on what is now becoming key to any country's transition to a 'better normal': strengthening and integrating health systems, so that they work for all people, for all health conditions, all the time. This is known as universal health care (UHC). When PhilHealth and the World Health Organization tapped PGH to show how COVID efforts could build up to this longer-term agenda, it was Raffy who wrote the proposal. This led to PGH convening its UHC Committee, piecing together the best practices of its renowned clinical Departments into what health care could look like beyond the crisis, in a COVID-19-aware society.
Dr Raffy tackles every mission with all that he has, taking inspiration from his mentors, wife and family, and his faith, to address the huge gaps in the Philippine health sector. He sees this as not only economical, political, or scientific, but also ethical: it must be fixed. But perhaps his most significant contribution yet to the fight against COVID-19 was, quite simply, standing by his mentor and leader, PGH Director Dr Gerardo "Gap" Legaspi, during a crucial moment of decision-making.
"He asked me what I thought about the call of the Department of Health and private hospitals to turn our hospital into a COVID-19 Referral Center. Knowing that he would make the right decision regardless of my advice, and aware that he was facing near-unanimous opposition for it, I merely boiled it down for him to a question of, 'Is it the right thing to do?' " Dr. Raffy said.
"I told him that his conviction must be absolute, to overcome the prevailing sentiments of fear, which were to be expected. The next day his letter to the PGH community made the news, proclaiming in its last line, "Let us do this because deep in our hearts - devoid of fear and anger - it is the right thing to do.'"
Since then the Philippine General Hospital has been at the forefront of the Philippines' war against COVID-19.
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Dr Raffy Marfori completed his Master of Public Health at the University of Melbourne in 2015 as a recipient of the prestigious Australia Awards Scholarships.
Since the 1950s, the Australian Government has provided study and research opportunities to Filipinos with the aim of empowering and equipping these individuals to drive change and contribute to Philippine development. Today, the Australian Government continues to provide educational opportunities to Filipino change-makers through the Australia Awards and Alumni Engagement Program.
