Photo from Cebu City PIO
CEBU CITY, Philippines—Private health workers here who are at the frontlines of the fight against the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic have started receiving their last tranche of financial subsidy from the city government.
Each private health worker, such as nurses and medical technologists, are expected to receive P10,000 each.
The beneficiaries have already received P20,000 in 2020, and with the last tranche, they will have received a total of P30,000.
The distribution began on Monday, January 4, 2021, and will continue until all beneficiaries have been given their last tranche of the financial aid.
At least 1,800 medical workers from Visayan Community Medical Center, Cebu North General Hospital, Chong Hua Hospital, Velez General Hospital, Southwestern Hospital, St. Vincent General Hospital and Adventist Hospital Cebu are set to receive the financial aid.
Cebu City Mayor Edgardo Labella promised the aid to the private hospital medical workers due to the huge salary gap between private medical workers and government medical workers.
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With the additional P10,000 per month for three months, the private medical workers would earn nearly the same as their government counterparts.
Doctor Ranil Yu, a resident doctor of the Visayan Community Medical Center, expressed his gratitude to the city government for the assistance.
“Dako kini nga tabang sa among mga health care workers hilabi na karon nga lisod kaayo ang panahon sad tungod sa COVID-19 pandemic. Maka raise og spirits sa amu sa panghitabo karon,” said Yu.
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(This is a huge help to our health workers, especially in difficult times like this during the COVID-19 pandemic. This raises the spirits of the health workers during this difficult times.)
The private medical workers were paid for the three months during the peak of the pandemic from May to July 2020.
It took at least three months before the financial aid was released due to documents required by the Commission on Audit (COA).
/bmjo