CRITICS have been quick to denounce Dr. Enrique T. Ona, who has been appointed Health Secretary vice Dr. Esperanza Cabral. The Executive Director of the National Kidney Institute, detractors charge, was responsible for setting up a system of transplanting donor organs, mostly kidneys, from living non-related donors. He also sees nothing wrong with organ recipients giving donors some form of gratuity, a practice that could lead to the outright sale of kidneys and of donated organs going to the highest bidder, most probably foreigners who have more cash to spare. Will he take the same commercial approach to the DOH? Some quarters have asked.

Fortunately for Ona, some Cabral supporters are taking a wait and see attitude, and are willing to give him a chance to prove himself worthy of the post.

Though disappointed at Cabral?s removal from her post, health activist Dr. Florence Tadiar, former president of WomenHealth Foundation, reveals that women?s groups are supportive of whoever sits at the DOH, ?as long as he or she supports the Reproductive Health bill.?

But more than the RH bill, Tadiar says, the DOH secretary must also look at how the health care delivery system is managed. ?The goal is universal health care which is quality, people-oriented health care.?

Ona, recalls Tadiar, has already started moving the government-run Fabella Hospital from its cramped quarters in Sta. Cruz to the Kidney Center compound in Quezon City, where a building will be constructed for it. ?The concept is a woman?s health care center, and to his credit, Ona has called on various women?s groups to consult with them.?

To do even better, Ona should bat for a community-oriented health care service instead of one that?s facility-oriented, Tadiar suggests. ?We must bring health service to the people and not wait for them to go to the hospital.? The DOH, she adds, must regularly consult with civil society to find out what?s at stake and what the conditions are on the ground.