Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 14) — New graduates of medical schools could be tapped to help in the battle against the coronavirus disease if there is a shortage of licensed doctors, the Inter-Agency Task Force for the management of Emerging Infectious Diseases said Tuesday.
The Department of Health has formulated the “interim guidelines for granting special authorization for the limited practice of medical graduates,” which the task force adopted, subject to conditions, IATF spokesperson Karlo Nograles said in a taped briefing.
The limited authorization “shall be used or issued as a last resort … shall only be effective for the duration of the state of public health emergency in the Philippines, unless earlier withdrawn by the IATF upon recommendation of the DOH,” he said.
Under Section 12 of The Medical Act, “graduates of medicine … may be given limited and special authorization by the Secretary of Health to render services during epidemics or national emergencies whenever the services of duly registered physicians are not available.”
To ensure that the country has enough medical workers, the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration announced last week it has stopped the deployment overseas of some categories of Filipino health care workers for the meantime.
Covered by the temporary overseas deployment ban are medical doctors, nurses, microbiologists, molecular biologists, medical technologists, clinical analysts, respiratory therapists, pharmacists, laboratory technicians, X-ray or radiologic technicians, nursing assistants or aide, operators of medical equipment, supervisor of health services and personal care, and repairmen of medical equipment who do not have employment contracts overseas as of March 8.
There are a total of 172, 744 health professionals in the country, according to President Rodrigo Duterte’s third report to Congress on his additional powers to address the COVID-19 crisis. Of this number, 28,428 are doctors, it added.
The IATF has also ordered the health department to facilitate the emergency hiring of additional health care workers to help ease the burden of hospitals and other treatment facilities, Nograles said.
The DOH said on April 12 these personnel will be deployed to COVID-19 referral hospitals, temporary treatment and monitoring facilities, and public and private hospitals handling COVID-19 patients.
Health Secretary Francisco Duque previously expressed hopes to hire at most 8,000 health workers such as medical technicians.
The COVID-19 outbreak, which has been declared as a pandemic, has put an unexpected strain on the health care system of the Philippines and other countries.
