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Lawmakers want govt to implement 'Narses’ program, soonest


MANILA, Philippines – A lawmaker on Thursday urged the government to implement the "Nurses Assigned in Rural Areas" (Narses) program, citing the urgent need for health workers in depressed towns in the country. The Narses program is part of President Arroyo’s bid to create jobs to mitigate the effects of global economic storm. In a statement, Tarlac Rep. Jeci Lapus said he supports the Narses program as it will provide not only immediate employment to local nurses but also the necessary medical attention and health care to residents of depressed municipalities in the country. "It's a noble program since it aims to provide jobs and training to our nurses at the same time address the health care needs of people from the poorest towns in our country. It shows we have a caring President," said Lapus, vice chairman of the House committee on good government and public accountability. Under the program, each nurse will be given an P8,000 monthly salary and could be raised by at least P2,000 through a counterpart fund from local government units, Lapus said. He added that corporations can also contribute to provide other needs of the nurses in the program. This can be done by sponsoring the nurses’ shirts, insurance, vitamins, mobile phones and others, “to make the Narses program truly a national enterprise with private equity." For her part, Bulacan Rep. Reylina Nicolas has asked the Arroyo administration’s critics to support the program. "There should be no delay in implementing it to ensure the immediate employment of our nurses and provision of health care to our needy countrymen," she said. Nicolas, a vice chairperson of the House committee on appropriations, said government can double the number of employable nurses by abbreviating the duration of service to six months so that another batch of about 5,000 will be recruited for the second half of the year. She added that another advantage of the Narses program is that it needs shorter orientation for the local nurses as they are familiar with their hometowns. "As they are already in their hometowns, these nurses are considered forward or advanced deployed, thus canceling the need for transport costs and briefing of local conditions. In short, they already now the terrain so the orientation will be shorter. But if urban nurses would clamor to join the program, then their transportation can be arranged through fare discounts by carriers," she said. - Fidel Jimenez, GMANews.TV
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