SPMC, DRH to recruit hundreds of doctors and nurses

TWO big state-run hospitals in the Davao Region will soon recruit hundreds of new doctors, nurses and other medical professionals. This was bared by Department of Health (DOH) assistant secretary for hospitals Romulo Busuego.
Busuego said the Davao Regional Hospital (DRH) in Tagum City which he concurrently heads and the Davao City-based Southern Philippines Medical Center (SPMC) are set to recruit  about 100 physicians this year.
Each of the DRH and the SPMC will need 50 physicians this year as part of the program to intensify their services, said Carlito U. Pillerin, executive assistant of Health Assistant Secretary Romulo A. Busuego.
The two hospitals will also recruit about 300 nurses with 120 of them going to the regional hospital based in Tagum City, Davao del Norte while the rest will be absorbed by the medical center, said Mr. Pillerin.
“Our worry is where to get those doctors because we can easily recruit nurses,” he said, adding that the government is always perceived as paying less to physicians compared to those in private practice, although he did not mention the rate for the physicians.
He said most of physicians have either left for greener pasture or worked in private hospitals.
Based on the website payscale.com, physicians working in the Philippines can make between P200,000-P500,000 ($4,566.21-11,415.53 @ $1=P43.80) annually depending on their expertise.
To recruit more physicians, Mr. Pillerin said Mr. Busuego is looking at coordinating with association of medical practitioners to lure them to work in government.
This predicament was confirmed by Dr. Jonathan A. Alegre, presidentboth of the Tagum Doctors Hospital and the Davao Medical School Foundation, who said that even those graduates of the medical schools would consider going abroad after just completing their residences in the city.
“It is hard to lure them back because of the lower pay,” Mr. Pillerin said.
The recruitment of more human resources is doubly important for the regional hospital as it opens its cancer center for Mindanao on January 8.
Mr. Pillerin, also the administrative chief of the regional hospital, said the hospital management has started looking at the staffing requirements of the cancer center as it will deal with cancer patients in Mindanao.
Mr. Busuego, he added, wanted to make sure that the center will be as efficient as the regional hospital, known for being efficiently run as the hospital management instituted policies that declog even its emergency section.
“We would like to show to patients that the services that they can avail even from big Manila-based cancer centers are available in the center,” said Mr. Pillerin, adding that the center needs an additional P200 million to fully-equipped it.
Built with budget of P200 million, the hospital only used P37 million in setting up the center even when the supposed budget for its construction was P120 million, Mr. Pillerin said. This was done through tapping the human resources of the hospital in its construction and with the help of Tagum City Mayor Rey  T. Uy, who also helped acquire the two-hectare lot from the nearby campus of the University of Southeastern Philippines.
The hospital used the remaining amount in buying the needs of the center, including its P134 million linear particle accelerator, a machine used in killing cancer cells.