ON the heels of the milestones and achievements reported by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. in his 4th State of the Nation Address (SONA), the Alliance of Health Workers (AHW) yesterday denounced the poor conditions continuously faced by health workers.
“We are holding accountable the Marcos Jr. administration with its criminal negligence in the condition and well-being of health workers,” said the AHW in a statement.
They noted that the salary of health workers is way below the minimum wage, while their work duty runs from 12 to 24 hours.
AHW also said contractualization continues to be pushed instead of mass hiring to address understaffing in hospitals.
The group also lamented the elimination of salary grades 1-4 instead of increasing and regularizing health workers and other staff.
The AHW also pointed out how the administration is promoting the privatization of public hospitals, which will supposedly further limit the poor’s access to medical services.
But aside from neglecting health workers, AHW also pointed out the poor conditions in health facilities, particularly in public hospitals.
“The state of the public health system has further deteriorated. Despite the dire need for medical services, public hospitals and health facilities continue to be underfunded,” said AHW.
The group noted that queues in public hospitals are long and take a long time before patients are attended to.
Oftentimes, it is said there are no medicines available in the hospitals, which forces patients to borrow money to buy medicine and pay for diagnostic procedures.
On the other hand, the AHW pointed out that there are the usual reports of having expired drugs and medicines in the Department of Health (DOH).
