Gov't hiring 22,500 nurses for deployment to rural areas

MANILA, Philippines – The government intends to spend up to P2.8 billion next year to hire and deploy 22,500 nurses, 4,379 midwives and 131 physicians under the expanded Doctors to the Barrio and Rural Health Practices Program, a lawmaker said yesterday.

Liquefied Petroleum Gas Marketers’ Association Rep. Arnel Ty said the allocation in the proposed P2-trillion national budget for 2013 is P1.114 billion or 66 percent greater than the P1.686 billion earmarked for this year.

“We are hopeful the additional knowledge and skills our nurses and midwives will gain from the program will assure them of highly rewarding jobs here or abroad, once they’ve completed their tour of duty,” he said.

Ty said the current budget is just enough to support the deployment of 12,000 nurses, 1,000 midwives and 200 physicians.

“We welcome the increased deployment of professionals, which will surely improve the delivery of badly needed healthcare services to underserved communities, while providing temporary jobs and extra training to our unemployed nurses and midwives,” he said.

Ty is the author of House Bill 4582, which seeks to establish a special jobs plan for the nation’s more than 300,000 unemployed nurses.

His proposed Special Program for the Employment of Nurses in Urban and Rural Services (NURSE) will deploy another 10,000 practitioners every year.

They will each serve a six-month tour of duty, and get a monthly stipend not lower than the amount commensurate to the higher starting pay for public nurses under a 2002 law.

Ty said nurses and midwives are among large groups of professionals having trouble finding full-time jobs, citing a report by the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC).

“Many of them remain either totally jobless, or underemployed and desperately looking for more work,” he said.

Ty said the PRC has issued licenses to 50,583 new nurses and 2,149 new midwives who passed their licensure examinations.

Nurses under the Doctors to Barrio Program and Rural Health Practices Program will help carry out the P2-billion expanded immunization of 2.7 million children, aged 0 to 15 months, against tuberculosis (TB), diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, polio, measles, and rotavirus, he added.

Health workers are also expected to help inoculate senior citizens against flu and pneumonia, and assist in the performance of the P1-billion TB Control Program via the Directly Observed Treatment Short Course (DOTS) strategy.

Midwives would help advance maternal and infant health in rural areas, where many indigent mothers still give birth at home without the benefit of trained attendants, Ty said.