Senate’s medical scholarship bill OK’d on 2nd reading

MANILA, Philippines — The Senate on Tuesday approved on second reading a measure seeking to grant full medical scholarships to eligible Filipino students in a bid to address the shortage of doctors in the country.

Senate Bill No. 1520, or the proposed Doktor Para sa Bayan Act, seeks to provide a medical scholarship and return service program for “deserving Filipino students”  in state universities and colleges (SUCs) and in partner private higher education institutions (PHEIs) in regions with no SUCs offering medicine.

The scholarship grant will cover tuition and all other school fees, including board and lodging, transportation, and other miscellaneous expenses.

Internship, medical board review, and licensure fees will also be included in the scholarship.

When Senator Joel Villanueva, chair of the Senate higher technical and vocational education, endorsed the measure for plenary approval back in May, he stressed that the country has already seen a “devastating shortage” of doctors even prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The passage of this measure is long overdue. No event in recent history has demonstrated with pristine clarity the urgent need to increase the number of medical professionals in the country,” he had said.

“The lack of doctors in the country is even more aggravated by the fact that some doctors leave the country for greener pastures. Moreover, most of our physicians are in urban areas,” he added.

The senator also attributed the country’s shortage of doctors to the “prohibitive cost of going to medical school.”

He said the high cost of tuition in medical schools was “even aggravated” by the fact that more than half of the regions in the country did not have a state university or college that offers medical programs.

“In the long run, we hope to see to it that the medical profession is accessible to the masses. In so doing, we hope to make medical doctors and health services available to every Filipino across the country,” Villanueva added.

The House of Representatives has already approved on third and final reading its counterpart measure of the medical scholarship bill. [ac]