Doctors to the Barrios slams DOH's Cebu City transfer order

Doctors to the Barrios (DTTB) on Sunday slammed a Department of Health (DOH) order temporarily transferring rural health physicians in Regions VI and VII to private hospitals in Cebu City to bolster its coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) response.

In a joint position paper, they urged the DOH to desist its “abrupt exploitative order” issued on June 26 stating that DTTBs from Region VI should report to Cebu from June 30 to September 5 while those from Region VII must report from June 26 to July 30.

The DTTB “strongly condemned” the order, saying that the doctors involved were not informed through writing, no consultation with stakeholders was held prior to the issuance of the directive, and no specific guidelines and protocols were given.

“The DTTBs and the local chief executives should have been represented in decision-making involving this temporary reassignment. Failing to do so makes such directives exploitative for doctors and inconsiderate for the communities that they serve,” they said.

“No clear information regarding the DTTBs’ safety, protection, lodging, insurance, and specific duties have been provided. 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,” they added.

The DTTBs also said that the order “contradicts the thrust of the DTTB Program” which was created in 1993 to address the need for doctors in rural communities.

They added that DTTBs, “gatekeepers in the barrios,” can help the DOH meet its goal to decongest hospitals by providing primary care in their respective communities.

“Let us not allow the disadvantaged communities to suffer from the loss of their rural health physicians at a time when they are needed the most,” they said.

“We, the currently deployed DTTBs… are calling on to the DOH to rethink this directive. We demand the DOH Regional Offices in Regions VI and VII to hold an inclusive dialogue with our rural health physicians and their affected municipalities,” they added.

DOH response

Earlier on Sunday, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire announced that Health Secretary Francisco Duque III had ordered the deployment of doctors, including DTTBs, to Cebu City to address the continued rise in COVID-19 cases in the area.

“The assigned doctors are rural health physicians and not municipal health officers. Meaning the municipality they serve already has a municipal-hired doctor ensuring that the municipalities they serve will not be left doctorless during their assignment,” she said in a statement.

Vergeire also noted that the nature of the DTTB Program is to post doctors in remote areas and where quality health care service is needed the most.

“COVID-19 cases have reached a critical point in Cebu City and the Department is grateful to those who have risen to this patriotic call,” she said.

Cebu City has the highest number of COVID-19 infections nationwide with 4,962 cases including 2,596 recoveries and 156 deaths as of Sunday.

The DOH earlier identified clusters of infection in 13 barangays in Cebu City.

Cebu City is also the only area nationwide that is under the stringent enhanced community quarantine, which was reimposed by Malacañang on June 15.  — DVM, GMA News