THE Department of Health (DOH) said a total of P14.3 billion in benefits for healthcare workers (HCW) has been disbursed as of September 3, 2021.
The benefits cover the periods September 15 to December 19, 2020, and December 20, 2020 to June 30, 2021.
For the first period until December 19, 2020, P6.4 billion has been disbursed.
This consisted of active hazard duty pay for 384,159 healthcare workers and special risk allowance (SRA) for 306,314 healthcare workers. For the meals, accommodation, and transportation (MAT) allowances, 103,096 healthcare workers received MAT worth P990.9 million.
For the second period until June 30, 2021, P6.9 billion worth of SRA was disbursed for 379,117 healthcare workers and life insurance worth P16 million benefited 32,281 healthcare workers.
The DOH also reported that P570 million worth of checks have also been released to 24,034 healthcare workers as Covid-19 sickness and death compensation.
Healthcare workers from both public and private health facilities catering to Covid-19 patients are the beneficiaries.
As stated in the guidelines, the DOH through its Centers for Health Development (CHD) enters into a memorandum of understanding with health facilities to legally disburse these benefits.
The health facilities are then responsible for disbursing these to the employees and submitting a liquidation report thereafter.
“Maliwanag sa amin ang sakripisyo ng mga medical frontliners. Within the DOH family includes 72 hospitals with more than ten thousand medical frontliners. They, like many others, put their lives at-risk every day in order to serve patients from all over the country and from all walks of life. Kaya sinisiguro namin na maibigay ang benepisyo sa pinakamaagang panahon, at ipaglalaban talaga namin ang budget para sa patuloy na pagkakaroon nitong mga benepisyo sa susunod na taon.” said Secretary Francisco T. Duque III. (SunStar Philippines / PR)