Govt nod for deployment of medical graduates
The Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) has approved the proposal of Senator Francis Tolentino to allow medical graduates to help the government in its fight against the coronavirus pandemic.
Cabinet Secretary Karlo Alexei Nograles said the government would tap medical graduates as a “last resort.”
Nograles said the task force approved the guidelines for the granting of authorisation for medical graduates, which was presented by the Department of Health (DoH).
“Special authorisations shall only be issued as a last resort,” said Nograles, also the spokesman of the IATF-EID.
“Any authorisation shall only be effective for the duration of the state of public health emergency in the Philippines unless earlier withdrawn by the IATF upon recommendation of the DoH,” he added.
The decision came after Tolentino urged the DoH and the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) to allow around 1,500 medical graduates who took the licensure exams last month to help during the coronavirus emergency.
Tolentino cited Section 12 of Republic Act 2382, or the “Medical Act of 1959,” which allows medical students who have completed the first four years of medical course, graduates of medicine and registered nurses to render medical services during times of epidemics or national emergencies upon authorisation by the Health secretary.
“Medical students who have completed the first four years of medical course, graduates of medicine, and registered nurses are allowed to render medical services upon authorisation by the Secretary of Health without need of a certificate of registration,” he said.
Around 1,500 fresh graduates from medical schools took the Physician Licensure Examination administered by the PRC on March 8 and 9.
The exams set for March 15 and 16, however, were postponed because of the pandemic.
In his weekly report to Congress, President Rodrigo Duterte said the Budget department had approved the DoH’s request on the hiring of 857 service health workers.
These frontliners will be deployed to the Lung Center of the Philippines, Philippine General Hospital and Dr Jose Rodriguez Memorial Medical Center.
Earlier, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said some health workers were either tired or under quarantine.
Meanwhile, the president warned that a second wave of Covid cases would be inevitable if physical distancing would not be strictly enforced.
He warned that mayors who fail to implement this protocol would be arrested.
“There seems to be a lack of uniformity on the enforcement of social (or physical) distancing. To the mayors, do not play with the government. If you do not want to enforce social distancing, I will be forced to arrest you,” Duterte said.
“This pandemic does not end with the patients now being treated in hospitals. They are the first wave. There will be a second one,” he said.