With COVID infections attributed to the spread of the Delta variant still rising across the country, hospitals are not only seeing their critical care facilities becoming overwhelmed but are also feeling the acute lack of trained healthcare workers.
The problem has been felt since the start of the COVID pandemic. Frontline healthcare workers faced the highest risk of infection, with several doctors, nurses and other HCWs and even their family members succumbing to the disease. A number of HCWs left hospitals, which found it difficult to find replacements. The government has had to ban the deployment of HCWs as nurses preferred to seek jobs overseas during the pandemic.
Apart from the high risk of COVID exposure, HCWs had to struggle to collect hazard pay and other pandemic-related incentives. The Bayanihan to Heal as One Act granted Active Hazard Duty Pay and Special Risk Allowances to HCWs, but only for those who reported for duty during the first enhanced community quarantine or ECQ from March 15 to May 16 last year. The AHDP and SRA were continued under Bayanihan 2. But there were always complaints about the delayed release of the funds.
The budget department released P9.02 billion for the SRA last June, for the payment of up to P5,000 per month from Dec. 20, 2020 to June 30 this year. This week as the nation battles a renewed coronavirus surge believed to be driven by the Delta variant, the Alliance of Health Workers has lamented that only HCWs who are in direct contact with COVID patients are eligible for the SRA. The alliance also said many HCWs have yet to receive their meal, accommodation and transportation benefits of up to a total P38,000.
Effective response to the pandemic calls for sufficient manpower. The government must be unstinting in addressing the needs of those manning the COVID frontlines.
EDITORIAL