Duterte says gov’t to look for funds to hire more health workers

Nurses from the Bureau of Fire Protection in Olongapo City assist other healthcare workers during a mass vaccination at the Rizal Triangle Covered Court. (Photo courtesy of Olongapo City Information Center)

MANILA, Philippines — President Rodrigo Duterte said the government will try to look for additional funds to hire more healthcare workers to attend to COVID-19 patients amid the workforce shortage in several hospitals.

“We will see what we can do. We will try to look for the money to have more recruits joining this fight against COVID,” Duterte said during his taped meeting with Cabinet members aired on Thursday.

“The pay is good actually, kaya baka we can convince more people to join us in this fight because I think the lure of a good salary is there. Medyo mataas na ngayon. The starting [salary] of just an ordinary soldier is something like 30 or 32 [thousand pesos] kaya maraming nurses ay lumipat [sa military],” he added.

(The pay is good so maybe we can convince more people to join us in this fight because I think the lure of a good salary is there. It is higher now. The starting salary of an ordinary soldier is something like P30,000 to P32,000 that’s why many nurses have transferred to the military.)

Duterte made the assurance to look for more funds when Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr., the chief implementer of the National Task Force against COVID-19, pointed out that the insufficient number of health workers in hospitals remains the country’s “perennial” problem amid the pandemic.

“Mr. President, kailangan po talaga natin masolve ito dahil talagang lahat ng hospital, ang kanila pong dinadaing ay kulang sila ng doktor, nurses and other related healthcare workers,” said Galvez.

(Mr. President, we really have to solve this because many hospitals complain of the insufficient number of doctors, nurses, and other related healthcare workers.)

The need for more health workers in hospitals resurfaced as the country battles a surge in COVID-19 cases due to the community spread of the more transmissible Delta variant. As of Wednesday, the country has 170,446 active cases of the disease, with the highest single-day increase logged on Saturday at 26,303 new infections.

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