THE Department of Health (DOH) is tapping its savings to come up with about P311 million to pay for the unpaid benefits of at least 20,000 medical frontliners.
“We have identified 20,156 private and public additional healthcare workers to receive the benefits,” Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said in a briefing yesterday.
President Duterte on Saturday gave the DOH and the Department of Budget and Management 10 days to pay the health workers with “whatever money there is” following complaints from the medical frontliners about unpaid allowances and other benefits due them under the Bayanihan 2 Act.
The law, which lapsed last June, mandates the provision of special risk allowance (SRA), life insurance, free meals and transportation, among others, to public and private healthcare workers.
The DOH has said it has disbursed P10.33 billion for the SRA of 685,431 medical workers for the period of September 2020 and June 2021.
Vergeire said the number of beneficiaries may still increase depending on the list to be provided by Centers for Health Development (CHDs) and the Ministry of Health (MOH) of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM).
In a memorandum dated August 21, Health Undersecretary Leopoldo Vega directed all CHDs and BARMM to come up with an updated list of health workers eligible to get SRAs.
Vega also said copies of the letter/communication to public and private health facilities should also be provided to their respective health workers unions.
Meanwhile, Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III asked lawmakers to pass a bill that will help raise the salary and benefits of healthcare workers (HCWs) in the private sector, at par with their public sector counterparts.
In a briefing, Bello said the Department of Labor and Employment is set to submit a proposal which will provide healthcare workers in the private sector “an entry level (salary) similar to that of the health care workers in the public sector.”
He said private sector healthcare workers give the same service as those in the government sector so it is only “fair” that they get the same benefits.
He said some 200,000 healthcare workers from the private are set to benefit . from the labor department’s proposal.
He said some some senators and House members “are open to the idea.”
He also said private healthcare facilities have the capacity to raise the pay of their workers.
“It is only fair since they are earning well, especially now that there are a lot of patients,” said Bello in reference to the COVID-19 pandemic.
