PBB offers incentive to nurses in private hospitals

CEBU, Philippines —  Presidential Assistant for the Visayas, Secretary Michael Lloyd Dino, has announced the launching of Project Balik Buhay’s Salary and Bonus Assistance for Our Bidas Program (Salbabida).

This program is upon the initiative of the Office of the Presidential Assistant for the Visayas (OPAV) and through the collective generosity of the PBB Private Sector Foundation-Partners.

In a statement, OPAV said that the PBB program is open to 11 private hospitals in Cebu and to all nurses directly employed by these PBB Private Hospital Partners, whether full-time or project-based employees.

Under the Salbabida program, the nurses hired will receive an incentive of P15,000 monthly for August and September and free RT-PCR tests every two weeks.

Meanwhile, the planned deployment of around 350 additional nurses to private hospitals in Metro Cebu will open up existing bed allocation for COVID-19 patients.

Citing Department of Health -7 Regional Director Jaime Bernardas, OPAV said that the Cebu Doctors’ University Hospital is set to open 130 more beds after a total of 30 nurses were assigned to the hospital as of July 29, 2021.

It said that private hospitals have been unable to accept more COVID-19 patients because they don’t have enough nurses to man available beds. Hospitals are required to have at least 30 percent of their total bed capacity allocated for COVID-19 patients.

At present, private hospitals have around 850 beds allocated for COVID-19 patients but only 2/3 of the total allocated beds can accommodate COVID-19 patients. This meant that there are about 280 beds still available.

To address this concern, additional nurses will be hired for deployment to private hospitals.

This measure was reached during an inter-agency meeting organized by OPAV recently.

DOH-7 has already deployed 52 nurses to private hospitals wherein 22 nurses are assigned to Chong Hua Hospital, 20 are for Cebu Doctor’s University Hospital, and 10 are for Perpetual Succour Hospital.

DOH-7 will also be hiring another 50 nurses who will be deployed within the week as CDUH is expected to open 130 more beds after a total of 30 nurses were assigned to the hospital as of July 29, 2021.

Dr. Gerardo Aquino, Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center chief of hospital, also said they will be hiring another 50 in the first week of August for deployment to private hospitals.

On the other hand, Cebu City will also be hiring 200 nurses, 100 will be allocated for the Cebu City Medical Center and Cebu City Quarantine Center. The other 100 nurses will be deployed to private hospitals.

OPAV added that since the nurse-to-patient ratio set by DOH is one nurse for every three patients, the targeted number of additional nurses will be more than enough to man the remaining beds still unoccupied due to lack of manpower.

Other measures to increase COVID-19 bed capacity is the use of temporary treatment and monitoring facilities (TTMF) to accommodate patients with mild symptoms and those who are admitted in hospitals but have been downgraded to mild classification.

OPAV further said that the TTMFs will help reduce the number of patients that will be admitted to hospitals, which are now serving all cases, including those with mild symptoms. — GMR (FREEMAN)