Gov: We’ll hire affected docs, nurses

DAVIDE

Cebu province will hire those health personnel assigned in the province that will be affected by the planned reduction of the numbers of rural doctors and nurses by the Department of Health (DOH).

Cebu Gov. Hilario Davide III said yesterday that they would accept those affected doctors and nurses especially since the province currently lacks personnel.

“Malipay ta kun mag-apply sila sa probinsiya. If mo-qualify sa standard, we are happy to take them in (We will be happy if they will apply in the province. If they will qualify in our standard, we are happy to take them in),” Davide said.

He said that the province could benefit if DOH would push through with its plan of slashing the number of health personnel since the province would really need doctors in district and provincial hospitals.

“Kung mag-reduce sila, we can accommodate them. We will take them provided they will apply. Makapili tag maayong doctors from them (If they are going to reduce, then we can accommodate them.

We can choose good doctors from them),” the governor said.

Rene Catan, Cebu provincial health officer, said that the province currently has 67 rural health physicians who are barrio doctors and 630 nurses under the DOH.

Catan also said that if the DOH would push through with the plan, it would have a big effect on the health services in the province.

“Dako kaayo ni siya og epekto. Dungagan pa nga kuwang pud sa mga nurses, makuwangan gyud ta. Mosamot ta pagka-undermanned,” Catan said. (It really has a big effect. If they also plan to cut the number of nurses, then we will have a problem. We will be undermanned all the more.)

The issue of the DOH’s plan to reduce the number of health personnel especially nurses and doctors deployed in the barrios was raised by Senator Ralph Recto recently.

According to reports, Recto claimed that the DOH’s plan was to free up budget space for another round of salary increases under the salary standardization law.

Contractualization

But during yesterday’s Kapihan sa PIA forum, Jaime Bernadas, DOH-7 director, said that the move to end contractualization had brought to the forefront the issue about the status of deployed health personnel, whose employment fell under the category.

Bernadas said that the option of creating items or positions for these untenured personnel was being considered by the DOH in order to regularize their employment status.

“Kay ang ato laging national government has already ordered to stop contractualization,” Bernadas said of the DOH move to cut the number of these doctors and nurses.

“So before it could really enforce, then it should also look at its own backyard. We got a lot of contractuals also in the government,” Bernadas said.

Salary, budget

He said that around 3,000 deployed health personnel in the region, which included doctors, nurses, medtech, midwives, and dentists would be affected by the government’s move to end contractualization once their contracts expire.

Bernadas said that other than the usual employment benefits, contractual employees would also receive the same salary rate as that of regular employees.

He also clarified that the Health Department’s budget had not decreased, citing last year’s budget which was around P80 billion minus the Philhealth premiums as compared to this year’s proposed budget of P97 billion.