NCR health workers soon to get help

AROUND 100 health workers from provinces with few cases of the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) would be assigned to the National Capital Region (NCR or Metro Manila) and other regions under the modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ), the Department of Health (DoH) said.

The emergency hiring of 102 healthcare workers fills half the need for healthcare workers in NCR, Region 4A (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Quezon) and Region 3 (Central Luzon) — areas placed under the 14-day MECQ.

“To help relieve the pressure off our

healthcare workers in high-risk areas in NCR, Regions 4A and 3, the drafting of a temporary substitution team from other provinces began immediately,” said Health Secretary Francisco Duque 3rd in a statement.

He added that 74 health care workers from Luzon had signed up for the temporary substitution team along with 28 from Visayas and Mindanao.

The MCEQ was enforced after 80 medical societies appealed for a breather for medical frontliners to prevent them from burning out.

Duque said the government allotted P442 million for bringing the provincial health workers to Metro Manila.

A nurses’ group did not agree with shifting health personnel to Covid high-risk places.

Filipino Nurses United (FNU), in a text message to TheManila

Times on Sunday, said pulling out nurses and other medical staff from provincial hospitals would “cause further problems” in the provinces.

“We are worried because pulling out is not the solution. Their provinces are in need and already deprived of hospital workers and this move may deprive them even more and cause further problems,” FNU Secretary- General Jocelyn Andamo told the Times.

The DoH has assured it will work with medical associations in the provinces to ensure their pool of health workers is not compromised.

The FNU proposed a different solution.

“What we want is more aggressive hiring, with decent [and] just pay, adequate hazard benefits, medical support and compensation so that nurses would apply.”

FNU estimates the country has more than 200,000 registered nurses that the Health department could hire. The group indicated that of the Philippines’ 500,000 nurses, only 90,000 are in the country, and 150,000 work abroad.

“The country has enough human resources... waiting to be tapped and offered decent proposals,” Andamo said.

She cited a certain local government unit that offered a daily salary of P3,000, whose vacant slots were filled “in a matter of days.”

“The lack of nurses is not the problem but the working conditions, pay and benefits,” Andamo said.

On Sunday, the country reported 3,109 new coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) cases, bringing the total to 129,913.

Of this number, 59,970 were considered as “active cases.”

Most of the cases were from the National Capital Region — 1,700.

Laguna ranked second with 169 cases, while Cebu City logged 114.

Most of the cases or 91.2 percent were “mild.”

The DoH said that 654 more patients survived the virus, bringing the total number of recoveries to 67,673.

The death toll reached 2,270 after 61 new deaths were reported.