ILOILO City – Exploitative. Haphazard. Abrupt.
This was how Western Visayas’ rural doctors under the Department of Health’s (DOH) Doctors to the Barrios (DTTB) program described the order deploying them to Cebu City beginning tomorrow to help unspecified private hospitals there cope with the rising cases of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).
In a statement, DTTB doctors expressed concern over DOH’s preparation for such deployment. They were informed about being pulled out from their current assignments in various municipalities only on Friday, June 26.
These doctors are to be stationed in Cebu from June 30 to Sept. 5 in four batches of 10 doctors for each batch of deployment. Each batch’s duty period is two weeks.
It was the DOH Undersecretary for Field Implementation and Coordination Team for Visayas and Mindanao Abdullah Dumama Jr. who ordered the deployment.
The barrio doctors raised the following concerns:
* no proper consultation was conducted
* no detailed guidelines and protocols to protect them were provided
* the deployment contradicts the thrust of the DTTB Program
“The absence of proper communication justifying the temporary reassignment of rural health physicians serving in geographically isolated and disadvantaged areas to serve in private hospitals in Cebu City is a clear violation of the Magna Carta of Public Health Workers,” according to the doctors.
Section 6 (c) of the magna carta (Republic Act 7305) stated: “A public health worker shall not be transferred and/or reassigned, except when made in the interest of public service, in which case, the employee concerned shall be informed of the reasons therefore in writing.”
Also, because this reassignment involves local government units that the rural doctors serve, they said it is only appropriate to conduct proper consultation with all stakeholders.
Local chief executives should have been represented in the decision-making involving this temporary reassignment, they stressed.
“Failing to do so makes such directive exploitative for doctors and inconsiderate for the communities they serve. There is complete disregard to the concerns of the doctors and the local chief executives,” the doctors further said.
The Doctors to the Barrios Program was conceived in 1993 primarily to address the need for doctors in rural communities, especially in geographically isolated and disadvantaged areas (GIDAs).
“Removing a DTTB from a municipality, albeit temporarily, will deprive healthcare to thousands of Filipinos in already marginalized communities. If we further clip the already short human resources for health in GIDAs, we perpetuate the existing inequities in access to healthcare that the DTTB program wishes to address,” the doctors stressed.
Also, they added, DOH “failed to provide clear protocols to safeguard and protect the Doctors to the Barrios who will temporarily render service in (Cebu) private hospitals.”
They said there was “no clear information” regarding the DTTB’s safety, protection, lodging, insurance, and specific duties.
“The likelihood that the services rendered by public servants will be abused by private institutions increases because of the lack of clear guidelines for their protection,” the rural doctors warned.
They urged DOH to consider the deployment order “before it is too late, before the apathy and lack of accountability by its leadership completely smother the flames of passion and service of an entire generation of doctors.”
But there appears to be no more backpedalling. According to Dr. Ma. Sophia Pulmones, chief of DOH Region 6’s Local Health Support Division, Regional Director Marlyn Convocar already met with the first batch of 10 rural doctors to be deployed to Cebu.
“Ginpatawag kag gin-inform sila sang rason kon nga-a ma-deploy sa Cebu,” said Pulmones.
She urged barrio doctors who have concerns about the deployment to contact DOH-6 office.
“Puede sila makatawag kag istorya kay Dr. Convocar,” said Pulmones.
Here’s the two-week duty period for each batch of 10 Region 6 rural doctors to be deployed to Cebu:
* first batch – June 30 to July 13
* second batch – July 13 to 26
* third batch – July 26 to Aug. 8
* fourth batch – Aug. 10 to 22
After their duty period, each batch would be quarantined for 14 days and tested for COVID-19 before being allowed to return to their original assignments./PN
