LAMENTING the shortage of doctors, especially in rural areas, Senator Juan Edgardo Angara is pushing for the passage of a bill that seeks to establish a medical scholarship program to increase the number of doctors serving underprivileged Filipinos in farflung communities.
Angara said uneven distribution of doctors and healthcare professionals in the country is very alarming.
He said most doctors and medical specialists are concentrated in urban centers and larger municipalities, leaving remote communities largely unserved.
According to the Department of Health, there is only one doctor for every 33,000 Filipinos—a far cry from the World Health Organization standard which is one doctor for every 20,000 population.
Data from the Philippine Statistics Authority showed that three out of five Filipinos pass away without seeing a doctor, nurse or any other allied health professional.
Of the 946 slots this year for the Doctor to the Barrios program of the DoH, in which the government shoulders the pay of doctors deployed to poor and remote towns, the actual number of takers was only 373.