Because I live in Dubai, my hospital room rate costs higher

View from my Standard B room at the 8th floor

As some of you know, I went to Manila to undergo an operation.

After the initial consultation with my surgeon, I went to the admitting section to reserve a room 3 days ahead of my scheduled operation.

I reserved a Standard Room A at Php2,900+ per day. Confirmed.

Come the day of admission, I was still asked to wait up to 4 hours for my reserved room to become available.

Not interested to wait any longer, I picked a Standard Room B instead. The difference is only a refrigerator anyway. Rate is Php2,650 per day.  But not until they read through my patient info form and saw my UAE ID. Upon learning that I do not reside in the Philippines anymore, they gave me another rate sheet, in which the Standard Room B costs Php3,100+.

Siempre nag-rebolusyon na naman ako. Why in the world that a Filipino living overseas should pay higher for availing a medical service in his home country? No, not actually service, but just the room rate.

What advantage will I get from the same room? Are there unique room services that I'll receive with that extra cost? I asked them these questions. I called up the supervisor's attention and got blanks in return. No concrete answers. There are no differences in the room type and no extra services (hotel?). Same bed, same couch, same TV, same bathroom.

The final answer they gave me was, because they have to put my Dubai address in the patient medical report, hence it costs higher. Am I stupid? Maybe they'll use gold ink to print my address overseas.

I don't get it.  Maybe the staff was misinformed or they just really have no answer to it.

I told her to look closely at my ID because it's clearly written that I am still a Filipino citizen. After few questioning and less response from the supervisor, she gave up and eventually put me in the "normal" room rate.

Oh, the hospital? The Medical City in Ortigas.

I opted to have my operation done in Manila because it is relatively more affordable there and the excellence of medical professionals in the country's premier hospitals are at par with the world's best. And my trust with the doctors and nurses remain the same.

This is just disheartening.