MALACAÑANG on Friday, July 24, 2020, announced that the physician licensure examinations will push through in September as more health workers are needed for the country’s fight against the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic.
In a statement, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) approved the conduct of the examination on September 20 and 21, 2020.
“The examination, which is part two of the testing activities for the March 2020 physician licensure examination is tentatively scheduled on September 20 and 21, 2020,” Roque said.
“The conduct of the examination will be held under observance of the strict protocols set by the Department of Health (DOH),” he added.
Last March, the physician licensure examinations were suspended as the government placed Luzon under enhanced community quarantine.
The Alliance of Health Workers (AHW) earlier demanded that the DOH hire more health workers to allow rotations and limit their exposure to Covid-19.
“The DOH should regularize the contract-of-service health workers that they have hired and hire more additional plantilla health workers. In addition, most of healthcare workers receive salaries that far below minimum wage and aside from not having adequate protective gear, they are overworked and underpaid,” the group said in a statement.
“If more Covid-19 patients will be hospitalized, the hospitals and health workers cannot cope anymore. Health workers are now infected and need to be isolated and treated. Currently, there are shortage of health workers handling Covid-19 patients,” they added. (Jove Moya/SunStar Philippines)