Palace: P19.65B disbursed by DOH for benefits of health workers

The Department of Health (DOH) has disbursed P19.65 billion for the benefits of healthcare workers, Malacañang said on Tuesday.

In the DOH accomplishment report covering July to December that was presented to the Palace, it was indicated that the benefits given to medical personnel include active hazard pay.

The DOH also reported the provision of the One COVID Allowance or the Health Emergency Allowance to 1,624,045 healthcare workers and the special risk allowance to 73,711 workers.

President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. earlier said the Office of the President is open for dialogues to tackle the concerns of nurses and other healthcare workers.

Marcos said he believes that the benefits accorded to nurses are not enough considering their services and sacrifices to ensure the health of the public.

Meanwhile, the DOH added that 1,430,286 additional patients have been served in 2022, with additional assistance amounting to P16.6 billion.

Further, the DOH also provided a total of P11.24 billion in medical assistance to 1,878,650 patients through the Medical Assistance to Indigent Patients (MAIP) program as of November of this year.

It also distributed P468.59 million worth of assistance to all regions for Disaster Risk Reduction and Management in Health (DRRM-H) activities and built additional 40 functional specialty centers, bringing to 46 the total number of specialty facilities nationwide.

When it comes to vaccination rate, the DOH said an additional 3,100,258 individuals have been vaccinated against COVID-19, bringing the official tally of fully vaccinated Filipinos to 73,713,573.

On the other hand, some 6,068,268 Filipinos received their first booster, raising the tally to 21,047,212. Meanwhile, a total of 2,843,537 got their second booster shot, increasing the total to 3,691,412 individuals, the DOH added.

The DOH also reported the ongoing organizational development activities for rightsizing, the decoupling of the alert level system from restrictions, and the institutionalization of the e-Arrival system.

According to the DOH, the e-Arrival card, which aims for a faster completion of the traveler registration process, "fulfills part of the Marcos administration's plan to ease the country's stringent entry protocols in order to attract more tourists." — RSJ, GMA Integrated News