Malilong: Let’s pay our nurses well

Malilong: Let’s pay our nurses well

THE government has imposed more severe restrictions in the three highly urbanized cities in Cebu again. The province was initially covered by the same order but Manila took it off the list upon the request of Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia.

The cities of Cebu, Mandaue and Lapu-Lapu should not follow suit. There is undeniably an upsurge of Covid-19 cases island-wide but that is not reason to copy what Garcia did. To each his own approach to the threat from the pandemic.

Unlike last year when our reaction to the first surge bordered on the insane, the reaction to the MECQ declaration this time is tame. People have apparently realized that for as long as there are active Covid-19 cases, they will be called upon anytime to make a personal sacrifice.

But government should do more than just require us to stay at home and keep our doors shut. For example, it has to make sure we have a steady supply of vaccines to immunize those who are willing. If there is anything that we can credit the third wave with, it is that it has convinced more people on the advantage of getting themselves vaccinated.

The problem is that we do not have enough vaccines to meet the demand. We trumpeted that the three neighboring highly urbanized cities have averaged more than 17,000 new vaccinees for a few days but intentionally omitted that the numbers could have been better if we had enough vaccines.

I spoke to Acting Mayor Michael Rama last week on the possibility of using the Cebu City Sports Center (CCSC) as a drive-through vaccination center. The mayor liked the idea since the CCSC will already be used as quarantine facility anyway but we both knew that it was pointless to open more vaccination centers if there are not enough vaccines.

But more than the vaccines, we need additional Covid-19 beds and emergency rooms. Obviously, building a new hospital is out of the question since the need is immediate, although China built a huge one in Wuhan when the coronavirus first made its presence felt. But we are not China.

I was told that there are actually rooms or wings in some private hospitals that are reserved for Covid-19 patients that have not been put into use because of the lack of manpower, particularly nurses. That is why the reported resignation of nurses from the Cebu City Medical Center because they have not been paid is regrettable. Under the circumstances, the failure to pay amounted to criminal negligence. I just hope that the report was not true or that if it was, that the issue has already been addressed and the nurses are staying.

At the height of the pandemic last year, the national government sent reinforcement nurses. I do not think that it is possible now considering that there is hardly any place in the country that is not affected by the pandemic and therefore needs to keep their health workers

Our only option is to source them locally but we can only do that by paying them well. It is romantic to appeal to their sense of duty to provide tender loving care but when you are asking them to risk their own health, you should be prepared to compensate them accordingly.

Last year, the Cebu City Government provided a subsidy for health workers. It may be ironic to ask them to do it again, given that they have not paid their own nurses on time but who else can we turn to?

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