“It is never too late for the agency to shape up.”
Department of Health Secretary Francisco Duque III should realize by now how urgent the issue of the Filipino healthcare workers’ plight is amid the worsening COVID-19 crisis in the country.
More than a year and a half since the pandemic originated in Wuhan, China, the crisis has clearly exposed the blighted state of the country’s healthcare system, its backwardness, and inadequacy.
We recorded the first COVID death outside China and we were still admitting foreign tourists one month before the chaotic Luzon lockdown.
We’ve seen such a rotten state of public health linger four years into the Duterte administration due to DOH officials’ incompetence. We cannot help but think of corruption when we hear about irregularities happening there.
I have nothing personal against Duque who also heads the presidential Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases.
But whatever has kept him in his post escapes me, as he continues to enjoy the trust of President Duterte despite the widespread clamor for his ouster over reports of rampant irregularities.
Well maybe they were “just a whiff of corruption,” no more than the recurrent unpleasant smell emitting from the DOH executive offices all these years.
Now, just as groups of healthcare workers threaten “mass resignation” due to non-payment of law-mandated benefits, the Commission on Audit (COA) has flagged the DOH for irregularities in P1.2 billion hospital equipment purchases and P95 million expired and nearly-expired drugs procurement.
Healthcare workers in private hospitals and medical institutions reportedly have not received the benefits due them under Bayanihan 2 Law, including hazard pay, medical allowances, life insurance, and free transportation.
The same benefits have been religiously awarded to government workers, including those in non-essential agencies and offices who have practically been on paid vacation since last year.
We have time and again praised and honored the sacrifices of the so-called frontliners in the war versus COVID-19. Let us not forget that 82 local healthcare workers have succumbed to the disease.
The DOH, through its spokesperson Undersecretary Ma. Rosario Vergeire, offered to hold a dialog with the nurses and other healthcare workers’ groups to address their woes, even as Duque himself has arrogantly insisted such benefits had already been released to the regional DOH offices and onto private hospitals for payment to their employees.
The DOH chief has always resorted to finger-pointing, even blaming Congress for “not listening to his repeated explanations.”
Duque must realize what greater catastrophe we would face if more doctors, nurses and other healthcare workers quit en masse due to DOH’s unresponsiveness and leave for greener pastures abroad.
Dr. Jose Rene de Grano, president of the Private Hospitals Association of the Philippines, said more than 10,000 healthcare workers had left for overseas jobs last year.
Philippine Nurses Association president Melbert Reyes said the PNA discourages such resignations as it would directly affect patient care but no one can blame the nurses for prioritizing their own personal welfare.
“Despite their sacrifices, they don’t really feel appreciated,” Reyes said.
The country’s healthcare system will surely be overwhelmed by the lack of nurses and other hospital workers. They are overworked, underpaid and demoralized.
They deserve more than lip-service from DOH officials.
I agree with Camarines Sur Rep. Luis Raymund Villafuerte who aptly described DOH officials’ apparent apathy towards the healthcare workers as “criminal negligence.”
Clearly now, the DOH needs a competent manager in place of Duque who should have resigned since the multi-billion peso fiasco at the Philippine Health Insurance Corp (PhilHealth).
Meanwhile, there remains hope for herd immunity with the arrival of more vaccines from abroad, thanks to Vaccine Czar Carlito Galvez.
In all likelihood, the COVID crisis will continue after Duterte’s term of office ends in less than a year. Still, it’s never too late for DOH to shape up under new leadership and management.