Health workers clarify cry for help
We need to hire additional hospital staff; it’s not enough to just provide more hospital beds
Various medical workers on Monday said that there was no intention to cause a “revolution” but are only asking for assistance amid their difficult situation in managing the rising number of cases.
Philippine Medical Association president Joseph Santiago said that the letter addressed to President Rodrigo Duterte was only a plea to ask for the government’s assistance to attend to the alarming spike of cases.
“Our purpose really is to help, to get some breather, to really make sure that we are doing the right thing,” he said.
He said that the government should backtrack in its four months of quarantine in order to determine what “weaknesses” need to be improved within the two-week lockdown.
“We have to learn from the past four months, what are the weaknesses we had so we can strengthen that in the coming days or in the coming weeks so we are more prepared,” he also added.
On Saturday, different medical organizations in a press conference aired their plea to revert Metro Manila to enhanced community quarantine to give officials time to recalibrate strategies.
However, President Duterte, in his late night address, referred to their call for action as a form of ‘revolution’ that was aimed to “demean” the government.
In response, Nurse Jaymee de Guzman of the Filipino Nurses United emphasized that the letter was meant only to get the officials’ attention to the real state of health system capacity in the pandemic.
“It’s not a call for revolution, President Duterte. It’s a call for help. We are not calling for a revolution. We need your help because we are the ones getting affected,” she said.
Philippine College of Physician Dr. Mario Panaligan said they did not mean to create a spectacle but was only focused on the urgent call to attend to the rising cases.
He said among the things that the government should focus on include the proper and uniform implementation of minimum health standards across the public.
Likewise, there is also a need to augment the number of hospital staff especially those working in intensive care units aside from increasing the bed capacity.
“We need to hire additional hospital staff; it’s not enough to just provide more hospital beds,” he said, noting that because of the pressure and lack of resources most nurses choose not to stay in the country for long.
Robert Mendoza of the Alliance of Health Workers also asked the government to increase the salary and distribute it evenly for more health workers to be inclined in applying for available positions in hospitals.
“When they increased the salary for police officials many nurses wanted to apply as officers. Why can’t they do the same for our nurses to increase their capacity in hospitals,” he said.
Meanwhile, presidential spokesman Harry Roque defended the President’s statement and said that he was only furious that their statement was released earlier to the public and media even before he had a chance to respond.
Nonetheless, Roque said that President Duterte heeded the call as it imposed stricter quarantine measures under modified enhanced community quarantine starting tomorrow.