Ona: No more ‘doctorless’ towns by year-end

MANILA, Philippines - By the end of the year, there will be no more “doctorless” municipalities in the country.

This assurance was given by Health Secretary Enrique Ona on Friday, as he reported that his department would deploy doctors to 32 towns that do not have doctors “so by the end of the year, there will be no more doctorless municipalities.”

These towns are found in the provinces of Abra, Ilocos Sur, Cagayan, Palawan, Zamboanga del Norte, Maguindanao, Tawi-Tawi and Basilan.

These towns are either fifth- or sixth-class municipalities, indicating that they are “very poor,” he said.

Ona added the deployment of the doctors is part of the Doctors to the Barrios that the Department of Health (DOH) launched in 1993 when 271 towns were found to have not been served by a doctor for 10 years.

The program, according to Ona, aims to “provide equitable health care services to all areas of the country by deploying competent, committed, community-oriented and dedicated physicians to serve inaccessible areas.”

The program’s targeted beneficiaries are “depressed and marginalized fifth- and sixth-class municipalities without doctors, and third- and fourth-class municipalities needing additional doctors.”

Since 1993, Ona said a total of 553 physicians in 29 batches have already served in 390 municipalities. In October, 38 doctors completed the program.

Some doctors have been absorbed by local government units while some have opted to stay in their respective areas of assignment after getting married to locals. “In this program, we don’t just deploy them but there is also an academic program that goes with that so that after two years, they have academic qualifications and they become experts in public health and health development,” Ona said.

At present, doctors under the program are assigned in 69 towns in 38 provinces.