13,000 jobless nurses, midwives to be deployed to remote areas

The government is planning to spend P1.7 billion next year to expand its “Doctors to the Barrio" program by deploying more than 13,000 medical professionals to remote communities, a lawmaker said on Thursday. “The enlarged ‘Doctors to the Barrio’ program will mobilize 200 physicians, 12,000 nurses, and 1,000 midwives to improve healthcare in underserved communities," LPG Marketers Association party-list Rep. Arnel Ty said in a statement. The lawmaker said the fund intended for the program is contained in the proposed P1.816-trillion General Appropriations Act of 2012. Ty — author of House Bill 4582 seeking to establish an employment plan for the nation’s jobless nurses — said the program will provide “short-term work" to some medical professionals while they obtain extra training that will make their skills more marketable. Some 290,000 registered nurses remain unemployed, according to Ty, citing Professional Regulations Commission (PRC) data. Last year alone, the PRC issued licenses to 41,789 new nurses and midwives. Ty said the nurses under the ‘Doctors to the Barrio’ program would help vaccinate 2.6 million children against tuberculosis, diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, polio, measles, and rotavirus. The nurses are also expected to assist in carrying out anti-tuberculosis program via the Directly Observed Treatment Short Course (DOTS), and to help inoculate 1.2 million senior citizens against flu and pneumonia, and, the lawmaker added. Ty likewise said the nurses and midwives would help advance maternal and infant health. “In the rural areas and even in city slums, many indigent mothers still give birth at home without the benefit of trained attendants. This is why we are still losing so many mothers to childbirth-related complications," he pointed out. Ty quoted some studies as saying that 162 Filipino mothers die out of every 10,000 births. — JE, GMA News