Few doctors want to go to barrios

MANILA, Philippines -  Only one in three slots in the government’s Doctor to the Barrios (DTTB) program was filled in 2015 and 2016, prompting Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto to make the program’s incentives more attractive to get more physicians to the countryside.

He said of the 946 DTTB slots in 2015 and 2016, the Department of Health (DOH) managed to recruit only 320 doctors in both years.

Because one DTTB physician is assigned per town, 626 low-income municipalities and millions of their residents were deprived of medical services, Recto said.

One of the doctors to the barrios was Dr. Dreyfuss Perlas who served in Sapad, Lanao del Norte until still unknown assailants in nearby Kapatagan town gunned him down last March 1.

“They’re (doctors) so few and they’re dwindling,” Recto said, noting that despite aggressive recruitment by the DOH, there were only a few takers for what is seen as a hardship post that pays P56,000 a month.

Asked by Recto during last year’s budget hearing why they were having a hard time filling DTTB slots, DOH officials said “unattractive pay and the desire to undergo further training” were main reasons cited by those whom the agency was trying to recruit.