MANILA, Philippines — Almost half of the more than 8,500 slots opened by the government for health care workers to help combat the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic have been filled, President Rodrigo Duterte said in report to Congress on the use of his additional powers.
“Of the 8,553 slots approved, 4,045 HRH [human resources for health] have been hired,” Duterte said in his report, made public on Tuesday.
It was the Department of Health (DOH) that approved the 8,853 slots for emergency hiring in 286 health facilities such as hospitals, quarantine facilities, temporary treatment and monitoring facilities and diagnostic facilities, Duterte said.
“The DOH continues to temporarily redeploy nurses to DOH and LGU [local government unit] hospitals handling COVID-19 cases, as well as for contact tracing and specimen collection/swabbing activities,” he added.
In the President’s report to Congress last week, he identified “bottlenecks” in the hiring of health care workers.
These include “low uptake/no takers for some positions” and “some applicants have private practice they cannot compromise.”