THE ANNOUNCEMENT of the Department of Health (DOH) to hire more healthcare workers to augment its workforce is most welcome. This is a breath of fresh air in the midst of a contagion.
Secretary Francisco Duque on Sunday said an initial 857 healthcare workers will be hired that would be deployed to three referral hospitals for the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). According to the DOH, these health personnel would be hired with “contracts of service” and would include physicians, nurses, medical technologists, respiratory therapists, radiologic technologists, medical equipment technicians, nursing attendants, administrative assistants or aides, and other personnel, as may be necessary.
Not a few, however, urge DOH that these healthcare workers be hired as part of the civil service and not merely on “contracts of service”, which is a precarious working arrangement. At this time, we are calling citizens to render personal civil service but, by merely giving them “contracts of service”, the call of DOH seemingly has no rhyme and rhythm with the constitutional policy under Section 4 of Article II. Health workers under “contracts service” are not employees of the DOH — thus, they are not part of the civil service.
DOH must be proud and not ashamed of making newly hired health workers part of the civil service. We like people who volunteer their services, but those healthcare workers who earlier volunteered themselves should be prioritized in the hiring and be upgraded as healthcare workers with salaries, depending on their qualifications.
While at this, the General Appropriations Act for 2020 onwards must prioritize health expenditures to match the global benchmark of “not lower than 10 percent of the Gross Domestic Product.” Currently, the country is spending only 4.6 percent of the GDP for health service.
The government must also take care of our local private health workers if we would like them to remain in the country. They should also be given hazard pay like that of their public sector counterparts. A subsidy from government funds is highly recommended.
Lastly, DOH to provide a plan on how it intends to build up our public health system to determine how many more healthcare workers we would still need. The COVI-19 contagion should make us realize that our public healthcare system needs to improve.
