Rural nurses complain of monthly pay delays

VIRAC, Catanduanes—At least 95 nurses from Catanduanes who were hired since February by the Department of Health (DOH) to serve rural communities for a year complained about the delay in their monthly stipends and other benefits.

The nurses were hired under the DOH’s Registered Nurses for Health Enhancement and Local Service (RN Heals) program, which tapped 10,000 unemployed nurses nationwide to serve 1,221 rural areas in the country.

Rodrigo Paolo Arroyo, spokesperson for the 95 nurses in Catanduanes, said DOH owed them four months of pay. He said their monthly stipends for February and March came at least two months late on May 12 and only after they sought help from the provincial government.

Arroyo said the nurses got no response to letters of appeal that they wrote the DOH regional office.

He said the nurses believed in the program because it was a way of gaining experience while earning at the same time. The nurses, however, ended up spending more from their own pockets, even resorting to borrowing money to be able to report for duty.

He said the nurses saw no reason for the delay in their stipends. He said the nurses have yet to receive a copy of their job contracts with DOH.

Aside from stipends, the nurses were supposed to receive a P2,000 monthly allowance from local government units (LGUs) where they work but they have yet to receive this amount.

Robert Fernandez, town mayor of Panganiban, one of the 11 towns covered by the RN Heals program in the province, said the amount has not been included in their 2011 municipal budget as the DOH and Department of Labor and Employment did not inform the LGUs that local funds would be needed for the program.

Fernandez said the LGUs were only told to provide the nurses with modest board and lodging and security in their places of assignment.