PB OKs ‘On-Call’ Doctors in All Provincial, District Hospitals

Medical doctors in the Cebu Provincial Government will be placed in “on-call” status to provide additional workforce in all provincial and district hospitals, PB member Christopher Baricuatro said.

On Monday, the Cebu Provincial Board (PB) approved resolution to hire on-call physicians to augment the medical manpower of the 16 province-run hospitals.

Baricuatro is the principal sponsor of the said resolution.

Cebu Province operates and manages 12 district hospitals and four level 1 medical facilities.

Baricuatro said the measure allows doctors, who are willing to work on a contractual and non-exclusive basis, to attend the continuous delivery of healthcare services.

“There is a need for the services of qualified, licensed and competent medical practitioners to handle the requirements for on-call special care in hospitals,” he said.

Earlier, Cebu Provincial Health Office (CPHO) head Rene Catan said they are already deploying devices to invite doctors and medical technicians to work for the provincial hospital. He explained that they are exerting efforts to entice recruits with competent salary grade “as compared to their counterparts in the private sector.”

The hiring of personnel is in preparation for the upgrading of four provincial hospitals in the cities of Bogo, Danao and Carcar and in the town of Balamban to level II, Catan said.

With health as the top priority of the governor’s six-key development agenda, the move to boost the manpower of provincial hospitals is part of Capitol’s “continuous effort to deliver quality healthcare services to its constituents,” Catan said.

Last month, the provincial hospitals started installing new laboratory equipment in various hospitals to provide free clinical examinations to PhilHealth card holders. These machines are expected to become operational this month.

SOURCE: www.cebu.gov.ph