Capitol pledges P10k incentives for DOH-hired nurses

INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

CEBU CITY, Philippines – More cash incentives will be given to nurses hired by the regional health office, and those who will be attending to COVID-19 patients needing hospital care in Cebu.

The Capitol pledged to give an additional monthly allowance of P10,000 to nurses that the Department of Health in Central Visayas (DOH-7) recruited for deployment in COVID-19 wards in private hospitals.

“The province has committed since some of our provincial constituents will end up taking care of patients in city hospitals. So, for every nurse hired, we will give an incentive of P10,000 for the two-month period that they will be assigned in the hospitals,” said Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia in Cebuano.

This means that each nurse hired by DOH- 7 is expected to receive P20,000 from the provincial government.

Last week, DOH – 7 said it are targeting to hire at least 60 nurses to augment existing medical frontliners attending to COVID-19 patients in privately owned hospitals in Cebu City.

Aside from the Capitol’s aid, the Cebu City government and members of the private sector under the Project Balik Buhay (PBB) program also vowed to give each nurse P10,000 and P15,000, respectively, as monthly stipend from August to September.

COVID-19 occupancy rates in Metro Cebu’s hospitals have risen as the number of new infections also rose.

DOH-7 earlier said could be a result of the presence of the highly transmissible Delta variant here.

To prevent these from reaching overwhelming levels, the health department decided to beef up manpower in hospitals with COVID wards.

In the meantime, Garcia said the Capitol is planning to purchase more healthcare equipment as part of their efforts to enable provincial hospitals to accommodate moderate to severe COVID-19 cases.

She said the province is set to purchase 20 units of high-flow machines so that the provincial hospitals in Balamban, Bogo City, Carcar City, and Danao City will have the capacity to attend to COVID-19 patients with moderate to severe symptoms.

“According to our doctors, they can manage COVID patients with the use of these high-flow machines better than ventilators. We will acquire these machines as soon as possible so we can help decongest patients in private hospitals,” added Garcia.

The governor also said they will also provide additional medicines and supplements to healthcare workers in the 16 province-owned hospitals.

Last week, the province deployed additional COVID-19 beds in all hospitals and hired additional 80 nurses to help in addressing the rise of COVID-19 infections. / dcb

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