Palace on PGH losing doctors amid surge: Recruitment is ongoing

Malacañang on Monday said that the recruitment of health professionals continues amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Patuloy ang recruitment ng DOH ng medical professional, either volunteers or magswe-sweldo. Marami naman tayong graduates [The Health department has been recruiting medical professionals on volunteer status or those receiving salary. We have a lot of graduates," said presidential spokesperson Harry Roque.

He was responding to a question about how the government is addressing the situation in Philippine General Hospital, a COVID-19 referral facility that has reached capacity for virus patients and where 11 volunteer doctors have decided to leave and not pursue residency training.

The Professional Regulation Commission has postponed the Physician Licensure Examinations, which had been scheduled for September 11, 12, 18 and 19 in the National Capital Region, due to daily number of daily COVID-19 cases now breaching the 26,000 mark.

Roque, however, maintained that the government is committed to expanding COVID-19 bed capacities as shown in the huge infrastructure allocation under the proposed 2022 budget.

"Ang alam ko marami tayong infrastructure, katulad ng mixed-use hospitals na tinatayo para maparami ang bed capacity. [We invest a lot in infrastructure such as mixed use hospital to increase our COVID-19 bed capacity]. The infrastructure-related projects are COVID-19-response related," he said. — BM, GMA News