HEALTHCARE WORKFORCE: A PRIORITY OF KALUSUGAN PANGKALAHATAN Press Release / 23 July 2014 The Department of Health (DOH) considers the Filipino healthcare workers as a priority of Kalusugan Pangkalahatan and continues to address the maldistribution of workers across the country. “The welfare and advancement of Filipino healthcare workers was and still is among the priorities of the Aquino Health Agenda”, Health Secretary Enrique T. Ona clarified. Understanding that achieving universal healthcare is not just about equipment and facilities, or funds to pay for services, the DOH is into the implementation of the Rationalization Plan that is seen to improve the status of government health workers, making it more competitive and attractive to be in government health service. The Rationalization Plan was started in 2013 after it was approved in August. At present, all the 16 regional offices of the Department have received their Notice of Organization, Staffing and Compensation Action (NOSCA) from the Department of Budget and Management (DBM). This will help the health facility hire more health workers depending on their needs. Among the reasons why health workers do not stay include lower salary or insufficient budgetary support from the local government, lack of medical equipment, and uncertainty for professional growth. To complement the human resource needs and discrepancies in number, the DOH has deployed a total of 8,203 rural health midwives since its launch in 2010. Solely in 2013, the 2,738 midwives were deployed across the country. Similarly, there were a total of 324 doctors deployed through Doctors to the Barrio (DTTB) Program and 63,932 nurses deployed from 2010 to 2014. With Local Government Unit hospitals, funding from PhilHealth capitation, it is now possible for LGUs to hire health workers which has already started for some cities and provinces. For the Registered Nurses for Health Enhancement and Local Service (RNHEALS) program, there were (20,801) nurses deployed in 2011, (10,000) nurses deployed in 2012, (21,929) for 2013, and (11,202) in 2014. For this year, the nurses are now deployed exclusively to rural health units where they are to lead Community Health Teams, participate in the Expanded Program of Immunization, perform pre-natal checkups, in addition to complementing regular clinical services. “Improving our health facilities through the Health Facility Enhancement Program (HFEP) will definitely lead to increase health workers in the provinces. Since 2010, there were 3,846 LGU health facilities that have been upgraded (1,567 BHS, 2,027 RHUs/ city health centers and 252 LGU hospitals); 2,084 were completed in 2013 alone and an additional 60 infrastructure projects in the DOH retained hospitals; Heart-Lung-Kidney Centers were established in Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao to improve accessibility to specialized care, decreasing the influx of patients to Metro Manila. Building a cancer center in Mindanao, for example, will encourage cancer specialists to practice there, Sec Ona said. Facilities improvement and health workforce augmentation go hand in hand. Doctors will not be happy if there are no laboratory test or equipment in the hospital/health center. With PhilHealth augmentation, doctors can potentially receive compensation by as much as Php 100,000 per month and use the same resources to continue modernization of their hospitals and rural health units that has already been started by the Health Facilities and Enhancement Program,” the health chief explained. In the noble quest for Kalusugan Pangkalahatan, getting competent health human resources whose welfare are taken care of will spell success. Secretary Ona remains optimistic that although the salaries of our public health workers is less when compared to the financial rewards abroad, our noble Filipino doctors would choose to stay and serve their countrymen, as he added that DOH has been taking steps to increase the number of positions available and salaries of our public health workers. “Aside from salaries, DOH sees the role of private groups and medical schools in terms of the proper medical education and training to encourage our doctors. Private doctors and societies can encourage their colleagues to practice in the far-flung areas of the country. In line with the Doctor to the Barrios program, the DOH commends these nationalistic health workers for serving their countrymen most in need of medical care,” the health chief concluded.
Posted on: Wed, 23 Jul 2014 09:31:00 +0000
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