Mayor Joseph Estrada on Tuesday ordered an investigation on the case of 116 doctors of the Ospital ng Maynila whose contracts of service were not renewed by the previous hospital administration.
Estrada also vowed to speed up the release of salaries of the doctors, who earlier sought the city government’s help about their plight.
Estrada pointed out that he was informed late that the consultants have no valid and updated job contracts, the reason they have not been given their salaries for 2015.
Estrada said he would have immediately acted on the contracts had he been informed accordingly.
The mayor advised the doctors and other hospital personnel to always comply with the requirements of the law, stressing that he is religiously complying with the regulations of the Commission on Audit in signing payroll checks.
Meanwhile, Ospital ng Maynila director Edwin Perez said that doctor-consultants receive varying rates, usually, P600 per visit; some render their services from six to 12 days a month.
“Some serve as consultant, who sometimes made 12 visits in a month, while some serve six visits a month. They were in different departments. We have a total of 11 departments,” he said.
Perez said the city government under Estrada has sufficient funds for the payroll of the hospital personnel.
“We have the budget for them. P5,140,000 for the whole 2015,” said Perez.
The Ospital ng Maynila is presently under rehabilitation to bring the facility back to its stature as the leading public hospital of the country’s capital city.
Estrada said the project is one of the ongoing infrastructure improvements under the city’s comprehensive P500-million Modernization Program for all its hospitals and 59 health centers.
Perez said the project which started sometime in 2014 is expected to be completed by second quarter of 2016, the time when the hospital will also turn 47.
The five-story hospital located in Malate, Manila is a 300-bed, general and training medical center and the only one with a Level 3 certification out of the city’s six public hospitals.
Its construction was endorsed by former Manila Mayor Arsenio Lacson to provide the healthcare needs of the indigent Manileños, but was inaugurated during the term of Mayor Antonio Villegas in 1969.
Perez said so far, the renovation is nearing its completion with the Emergency Room, Intensive Care Unit, Out-Patient Department, lobby and administration offices all ready.