Board member calls on DOH to retain doctors in Region 6

By Joseph B.A. Marzan

 

Iloilo Provincial Board Member Domingo Oso Jr. (4^th district) on Tuesday called on Department of Health (DOH) Secretary Francisco Duque III to stop the deployment of Doctors to the Barrios (DTTB) from Iloilo to Cebu City.

 

Addressing the Sangguniang Panlalawigan in a privilege speech, Oso cited a letter sent to him by six DTTBs assigned to the province on June 29, calling on the board to issue a resolution to support their appeal to the DOH.

 

The letter was signed by DTTB doctors Florel May Acebuque, Angelina Sophia Brasileño, Jay Rodrigo Epsinal, Percy Mae Samaniego, Marigi Jolliet Salvador in Ajuy, and June Rose Naig, who are assigned to the towns of Leon, Dueñas, Dumangas, Maasin, Ajuy, and San Dionisio, respectively.

 

According to the doctors, pulling them out of their present towns would compromise the province’s health care system which they described as “effective”.

 

“These Doctors to the Barrios argued that the number of COVID-19 cases in the Province is rising. Being doctors at the grassroots, they are the primary gatekeepers to control not only the spread of the Corona Virus, but also prevent other diseases in the Province including the rise of Dengue during the rainy season. Thus, according to them pulling them out of their present municipalities would compromise the currently working and effective health care system in place that is keeping Iloilo a safe and healthy community,” Oso said in his speech.

 

Oso said that he shared the views of the doctors, citing the most recent incidence in Alimodian town and Iloilo City, where five health care workers and six physicians respectively, tested positive for COVID-19.

 

He also cited the increase in COVID-19 cases in the region brought about by the consecutive repatriations of Locally-Stranded Individuals (LSI) and Overseas Filipino Workers (OFW).

 

“The order of DOH to pull out much needed DTTBs to serve in private hospitals in Cebu is ill-timed, done at the very moment when our COVID-19 cases are shooting up in Western Visayas. We are in the midst of our contagion that has also afflicted our frontliners. Our people and LGU’s exerted great efforts and sacrifices to keep Western Visayas away and relatively safe from COVID-19,” he said.

 

Last week, the DOH Center for Health Development in Western Visayas (DOH-CHD-6) initially ordered the pullout of nine doctors in the region to be deployed to private hospitals in Cebu City, but was met with heavy criticism from both the public and private sectors.

 

In a press conference on Monday, however, the DOH-CHD-6 said that it has suspended the deployment of the DTTBs.