PATIENTS who complained against “negligent” outsourced doctors and medical staff in 16 Capitol-managed hospitals can now breathe a sigh of relief.
The Provincial Board (PB) has authorized Gov. Hilario Davide III to hire “professionals” to replace them.
It approved two resolutions authored by PB Member Peter John Calderon addressing the matter: one authorizes the governor to sign on behalf of the Province the contract of services of the doctors and the other authorizes the Capitol’s contract of services of the doctors.
Calderon said the move will further motivate formerly outsourced doctors and newly recruited ones, thus improving the quality of their work and ending the perennial problem of delayed salaries.
Capitol will now be directly responsible for these doctors and not 5 Stars Amalgamated Manpower and Allied Services Inc., the outsource company which had supplied the provincial hospitals with medical officials and support staff until their contract expired last Dec. 31.
Temporary
Calderon said the doctors will be under contract for six months or less, while the Capitol follows certain procedures to fill vacant and funded permanent positions.
“On a temporary basis just to prevent having a vacuum of medical doctors in the province,” he said.
The P2.596-billion budget this year showed that there are 68 slots available for doctors.
Provincial Health Office Head Cynthisa Genosolango had said the Capitol plans to have everybody occupy a regular permanent position.
She said Capitol will also welcome visiting medical consultants.
Genosolango said permanent positions for dentists, medical technologists and pharmacists will follow.
In the meantime, she said, medical support staff like nurses will be hired as job-order employees until they can fill vacant positions permanently.