Budget allocation 41% higher in 2016: DOH to recruit 15,000 nurses

CEBU, Philippines - The Department of Health will be hiring 15,000 nurses for the Nurse Deployment Project (NDP), formerly RNHeals, next year.

The announcement was posted on Infonurses.com quoting Senate President Pro-Tempore Ralph Recto.

Recto said the health department has increased its NDP target by 10 percent because its budget allocation ballooned up to P124 billion.

The amount is reportedly 41 percent higher than the usual appropriation of DOH for NDP, a program that sends nurses to communities identified by the National Anti-Poverty Commission.

For next year, DOH has set aside P7.1 billion for the wages of 21,118 health professionals, including the 15,000 nurses, 1,192 rural doctors (Doctors to the Barrios Program), and 3,000 midwives (Rural Health Midwives Placement Program).

“Call it a booster shot or a massive fund transfusion, but percentage-wise, this one breaks the record... DOH will be spending P100 million more per day in 2016 than what it is spending daily this year,” Recto said.

This year, DOH has only employed 13,500 nurses under NDP, 398 doctors, 2,700 midwives, and 480 dentists.

Nurses under this program receive a salary of P18, 549 a month and a Certificate of Employment. The health professionals are assigned to the “poorest cities and municipalities” in the country to improve local health systems that will support the country’s attainment of Universal Health Care or “Kalusugang Pangkalahatan.”

Those who are qualified to apply are registered nurses and registered midwives not more than 40 years old and have no plans of going abroad for the next two years.

DOH regional offices handle the recruitment of NDP nurses. Hiring usually starts around the month of November. — (FREEMAN)