DOH eyes amendment to Magna Carta of Public Health Workers

The Department of Health (DOH) on Friday said it is pushing for an amendment to the Magna Carta of Public Health Workers to include health workers in private hospitals nationwide.

DOH officer-in-charge Maria Rosario Vergeire said the salient features include provisions of hazard pay, education assistance, and additional compensation.

“[K]asi kapag may pinatupad, usually public health workers lang po base sa batas natin ngayon. But if we amend this to include both public and private, the private sector also will receive the same amount,” she said at a media briefing.

[Because if there are policies that are implemented, usually only public health workers get it based on our laws. But if we amend this to include both public and private, the private sector will also receive the same amount.]

Vergeire said they are also proposing the standardization of salaries for public and private health workers in the national and local health sectors.

“Para wala nang differentiation ‘pag napasa itong batas na ito as to the salaries between the public and the private, the national and the local,” she said.

[So there will be no difference between the salaries of the public and private and the national and local if this is passed.]

“Whatever a healthcare worker will receive from the public sector, dapat mapapantayan na rin ‘yan ng private sector ayon dito sa pinapanukala natin na bill para maipasa sa Kongreso at sa Senado,” she added.

[Whatever a healthcare worker from the public sector will receive, this should be matched by the private sector according to the bill that we are pushing to be approved at Congress and the Senate.] — Joahna Lei Casilao/RSJ, GMA News