Over 600 ‘Doctor to the Barrios’ slots still vacant

Senate President Pro-Tempore Ralph Recto has revealed that 626 "Doctor to the Barrios" (DTTB) slots remain unfilled, depriving millions of Filipinos in poor far-flung communities access to professional health care service.

According to Recto, only one in three slots in the government’s DTTB program was filled in 2015 and 2016, raising calls in the Senate to make the program’s incentives more attractive to convince more doctors and health care professionals to do rural practice.

Of the 946 available DTTB slots in 2015 and in 2016, the Department of Health (DOH) managed to recruit only 320 doctors in both years, Recto said.

Hence, 626 low-income municipalities and their millions of residents were deprived of medical services for lack of takers, he added

Dr. Dreyfuss Perlas, 31 Recto went on to lament that the number of DTTBs even decreased with the killing of 31-year-old Dr. Dreyfuss Perlas, who was gunned down by still unknown assailants in Kapatagan, Lanao Del Norte town last March 1.

Perlas served as a volunteer doctor in nearby Sapad town, also in Lanao del Norte until the time he was killed.

“Konti na nga lang, nalagasan pa,” Recto said, noting that despite aggressive recruitment by the DOH, there were only few takers for what is seen as a hardship post that pays 156,000 a month.

When asked by Recto during last year’s budget hearing why they were having a hard time filling DTTB slots, DOH officials cited “unattractive pay” and “the desire to undergo further training” as main reasons given by those they were trying to recruit.

More perks Recto urged the DOH to revisit the “benefits package” for the program, which is a lynchpin in the government’s move to increase doctors’ presence in poor areas.

And to guarantee a steady supply of doctors, Recto said the government may have to “infuse more incentives” into the medical scholarship program being run by the DOH, "by making it at par with what cadets at the Philippine Military Academy (PMA) and Philippine National Police Academy (PNPA) get.”