CHED approves 20th public medical school in PH

Aspiring doctors in Eastern Visayas are a step closer to reaching their dreams as the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) approved the Samar State University’s (SSU) application for government authority to operate a medical degree program.

With this, SSU now offers a Doctor of Medicine program at its Samar Island Institute of Medicine — the 20th public university in the Philippines that offers a medical program for underprivileged students.

CHED chairman Prospero de Vera III said this development was in line with the “Doktor Para sa Bayan” Law, which aims to increase the number of doctors who will serve in far-flung areas by establishing a medical scholarship and return service program for qualified students in state universities or in partner private higher education institutions in regions where no medical course is offered. 

“The expansion of medical education in Samar will facilitate the implementation of Republic Act No. 11509 or the Doktor Para sa Bayan law as there is no state college or university in Eastern Visayas where poor but deserving students can become doctors,” De Vera said in a statement. 

CHED said that the University of the Philippines (UP) School of Health Sciences in Palo, Leyte has a medical program using a “ladderized system” but it does not allow direct enrollment of students and its learners are scholars of local governments. 

SSU President Marilyn Cardoso expressed gratitude for the approval of their medical program, saying that it “represents a significant milestone” in their university’s history.

“The program is more than just an addition to our academic offerings, it represents SSU’s commitment to rewriting the narrative of Samar; to transform the healthcare landscape; and to ensure that the peoples of Samar and beyond will have access to world-class medical training and care,” she said.

CHED said that with the addition of SSU, there are now eight state universities and colleges (SUCs) with medical schools in Luzon, five in Visayas, and seven in Mindanao. 

More than 2,000 poor but deserving students currently have scholarships in public and private-partner medical schools in the country under the Doktor Para sa Bayan law.

After graduating and passing the licensure examinations for physicians, the scholar must fulfill the mandatory return service agreement by serving his hometown or any underserved municipality determined by the Department of Health as a priority area — one year for every year that the scholarship has been availed of.

Otherwise, the physician-scholar will be required to pay twice the full cost of the scholarship, including other benefits and related expenses. —Giselle Ombay/KBK, GMA Integrated News