(We yield this space to the statement of the Alliance of Health Workers-Iloilo and Filipino Nurses United- Iloilo Chapter due to its timeliness. – Ed.)
WE STRONGLY oppose the redeployment of 40 Doctors to the Barrios (DTTBs) from Regions 6 and 7 as per Memorandum issued by the Department of Health (DOH) on June 26, 2020 from their current rural health unit assignment to unspecified private hospitals in Cebu City as part of COVID-19 response.
While it is true that “the place of heroes are in the battlefields”, these heroes do not need to leave their very scarce resources such as rendering service in private hospitals. They are also much needed by the poor population to render basic medical/health services in the municipalities they are assigned in.
The function of the DTTBs is preventive in nature. While they have taken their Hippocratic Oath, these DTTBs are already assigned to local government units (LGUs) where they presently serve. Leaving their LGU assignments may only give rise to constrictions in the basic healthcare needs of their residents. Going on duty in private hospitals exposes them to COVID-19 and upon their return to their LGUs may bring with them the much dreaded coronavirus.
Reassigning them from geographically isolated and depressed areas (GIDA) in the region to Cebu City is not the solution especially today that COVID cases are increasing in Iloilo. Also, the rainy season already started and illnesses such as dengue fever, respiratory diseases, leptospirosis apart from other common diseases like cardiovascular, diabetes and kidney problems are expected to rise. Hundreds of thousands of people will again have no access to doctors in the low-income, remote catchment areas left behind by DTTBs. Even if the deployment is temporary as alleged by DOH, this move will again deprive these GIDA barangays of medical doctors for at least four to six weeks at a time.
Instead of pulling out these DTTB physicians from their GIDA assignments, DOH and private hospitals can hire more physicians and fill up the vacant plantilla positions.
We need to ask: whatever happened to the much-touted recruitment of additional health personnel for the Bayanihan Heal As One act? Why not deploy these personnel who are especially designated and presumably adequately trained for the COVID-19 response?
We therefore strongly support the desistance of this 40 DTTBs against redeployment to Cebu. These young doctors have made the laudable decision to stay in rural areas and serve fellow Filipinos as an expression of their adherence to the Hippocratic oath and patriotic sentiments.
To become a licensed Medical Doctor is not an easy and simple profession. They are not like soldiers that “obey before you complain”. Let us give them due respect and gratitude and allow them to continue providing health services to their respective communities.
