THE Department of Health functioned fairly well even without a permanent secretary during the last 12 months, thanks to the able leadership of officer in charge Undersecretary Ma. Rosario Vergeire. There are matters, however, that are best handled at the level of the Secretary of Health, and so most everybody was happy that finally, a full-time, permanent secretary is now at the helm of the DOH.
First in Dr. Ted Herbosa’s things-to-do is untangling the various problems created by the government’s recent fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. One of these problems is the unpaid allowances of health workers, which were promised by government through legislation.
Herbosa has vowed to make the distribution of delayed COVID-19 benefits to healthcare workers a priority under his leadership. Herbosa, who served as health undersecretary under the Aquino administration, has promised to order the DOH and work with the Department of Budget and Management to look for funding sources and distribute the arrears to healthcare workers.
“It’s about time we honor them because they’re leaving. They’re getting jobs in other countries that [pay] them higher. We need to solve this. This is my priority,” Herbosa told reporters on Wednesday, adding that it is just proper that all those who worked and rendered service during the pandemic receive their benefits under the law.
‘Herbosa’s observation that health workers, especially nurses, are leaving the country because of poor pay is true.’
It was reported that some 20,000 healthcare workers who attended to COVID-19 cases at the height of the pandemic have yet to get the benefits promised to them. The United Private Hospital Unions of the Philippines estimated last April that the total amount owed by the government was a whopping P1,840,742,500. This includes P6.7 million for meal, accommodation, and transportation benefits; P16.8 million for special risk allowance; P985.6 million for One COVID-19 allowance, and P737.5 million for health emergency allowance.
Herbosa’s observation that health workers, especially nurses, are leaving the country because of poor pay is true. Public hospitals give a starting salary of P33,575 to nurses, and a lot lower in private hospitals. There are some 106,000 positions for nurses to be filled up in public and private hospitals but there are few takers.
A congressman once pointed out that 8,128 new nursing graduates took the 2022 examination for the license to practice in the United States. This is 129 percent higher than the 3,550 nurses who took the exam in 2021. Indeed, our nurses are leaving the country, and the DOH needs the whole government to avert the problem.
Aside from solving the delayed allowances of healthcare workers, Herbosa said that the President’s marching orders to him were to address the rising cases of human immunodeficiency virus, teenage pregnancy, and tuberculosis.
He was also directed to further widen healthcare access to indigents through the establishment of specialty hospitals and the cooperation of the private sector, towards the full implementation of the Universal Health Care Law.
It isn’t true, Herbosa said, that he is an advocate of the privatization of government hospitals. He is in fact looking into how the government can tap the private healthcare sector for the full realization of the universal healthcare law.
A whiff of good news is the secretary’s announcement that he will soon meet with health stakeholders in the private sector to discuss what they could contribute to the government’s effort to enhance the universal health care program.
