Nasty, brutish and long

The OPM icon Claire de la Fuente died in a hospital tent, according to her friends, without getting decent medical attention. But you have no reason to indict the hospital. The metropolitan hospital system, the one in NCR Plus (National Capital Region or Metro Manila, Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna and Rizal), and the health care workers, are already past the breakdown point. The tents that have taken over the parking lots and every vacant space are testament to the sheer volume of the sick and the dying that are forcing their way, with both desperation and urgency, into the hospital tents. Expiring at the tents without any medical attention is part of the health care system’s “new normal” in these pandemic times. And no blame can be pinned on the overstrained and overstretched hospitals and medical personnel.

Wannabe singers with power and clout may not expire like the late OPM icon on a hospital tent; a room can always be found. But the late singer, even with her angel’s voice, sadly had neither power nor clout to rejigger hospital space.