DOH: Funds ready for hiring health workers but applicants remain few

The Department of Health (DOH) said on Monday that the government had enough funds to augment the health workforce amid a new surge in COVID-19 cases but lamented that only a few health workers were “heeding the call.”

Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire added that the DOH had given hospitals enough funds to hire health workers directly.

Over 7,000 have been hired since the DOH launched its emergency hiring program for health workers at the start of the pandemic last year.

“Unfortunately, the challenge still would be the uptake. We have the money to hire but not many health workers are heeding the call maybe because of fear or some are really deployed already in other industries,” Vergeire said in a Palace briefing.

Groups of medical professionals have been sounding the alarm on a shortage of health workers amid the surge.

The Private Hospitals Association of the Philippines Inc. said there was no use expanding the bed allocation for COVID-19 cases if there were not enough health workers to see to patients.

The Philippine Hospital Association likewise said that the hospital capacity is not as big a problem as the lack of manpower.

The DOH earlier reported that more health workers have been getting infected with COVID-19 as more patients flocked to hospitals.

A total of 16,085 cases with 15,271 recoveries and 82 deaths related to COVID-19 have been recorded among health workers as of April 3.
Nationwide, 135,526 cases remain active as of Sunday afternoon.  — DVM, GMA News