Gov’t releases more funds for healthcare program

More funds are flowing into state healthcare as the Department of Budget and Management has released P294 million for the hiring of nurses and midwives for government health facilities.

Budget Secretary Florencio B. Abad said in a statement that the new hires will be deployed to “all (towns), cities and health facilities throughout the country.”

Abad said the fund for the Department of Health’s (DoH) Registered Nurses for Health Enhancement and Local Service (RNheals) project is part of the recently announced P72-billion economic stimulus package.

The allocation is meant to help “create a pool of registered health professionals with enhanced clinical and public health competencies that would ensure improved delivery of health care services in the country,” he said.

Also, the RNheals project is meant to address the shortage of nurses in the Philippines, aside from helping efforts to achieve the United Nations Millennium Development Goals—particularly in improving the health of mothers and reducing the risk of deaths among children.

Abad said that the new fund release will enable the DoH to hire an additional 10,000 nurses and 1,000 rural health midwives within the fourth quarter of this year.

Nurses will have P8,000 in monthly allowances while midwives will have P6,000 aside from—for both professionals—PhilHealth insurance premium worth P1,200 yearly, group accident insurance enrollment of P500 yearly, and a certificate of completion after finishing their year-long commitment.

State hospitals will provide meals for the nurses during their tour of duty, equivalent to at least P2,000 monthly.

Further, nurses and midwives assigned to rural health units will receive an additional allowance of at least P2,000 monthly from local government units.

Under the RNheals program, a first batch of 1,021 nurses was deployed last February to areas where there are indigent households that the Department of Social Welfare and Development has identified as beneficiaries of the conditional cash transfer program.

“There was a positive response from the [RNheals] project stakeholders so we decided to expand the project to cover all (towns), cities and health facilities in the country,” Abad said.