ON Friday, the Department of Health sent out a call for volunteer health workers to man the forts at the Lung Center, Philippine General Hospital, or Dr. Jose N. Rodriguez Memorial Hospital. For their work, they would be paid P500 a day for 14 days. After their 14 day shift, they would be quarantined on-site for another two weeks.
On social media, doctors and other netizens slammed this "pittance" of an allowance.
In one post (which at the time of posting, has accumulated more than 6,300 reactions and 5,500 shares on Facebook), radiologist Dr. GK Galvez Tan wrote: “It's not about the money. Not quite. As some colleagues have said, most doctors would have done the job for free.”
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Instead, he questioned where the extensive funds allocated to the DOH will be going, if not to compensate the volunteer frontline personnel.
“If health care workers are expected to sell their lives cheaply, at least let them have the dignity of knowing that their nation was behind them, fighting for them on every front, at every level,” he wrote. “Let them know that this pittance is all that is left in the open hand of a nation that has exhausted everything else.”
On Saturday night, DOH undersecretary Mario Rosario Vergeire apologized for the proposed allowance.
She said that the P500 a day offer was based on the allowance given to volunteers of previous outbreaks.
“Humihingi rin po kami ng tawad kung ang impresyon na naibigay ng P500 daily allowance ay ganito lamang ang halaga na binibigay natin sa ating health care workers. Hindi po ito mas lalayo pa sa katotohanan," Vergeire said in a statement released to the press.
She clarified that the majority of the agency’s budget is being allocated for the purchase of personal protective equipment or PPEs.
However, Vergeire promised to work on a better deal for the volunteers. “Ngayon nabigyan ng supplemental budget inaayos ang paghahati ng pera para mapaglaanan ng mga bagay tulad ng compensation para sa health workers, pag-aayos ng benefit packages,” her statement continued.
In the original call for volunteers, the DOH promised that, aside from the daily allowance, food and accommodations for these on-site volunteers would be covered. In addition, they would receive a payout of P100,000 if they contract a disease. If they die of COVID-19 in the line of duty, their families will be paid P1 million.
Source: Spin PH
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