Health workers have opposed an order of a Department of Health (DOH) unit requiring hospitals and other health facilities to resubmit their computation of the Special Risk Allowances (SRA) their staff are supposed to receive using new templates.
Among the new information required by the Bicol Center for Health Development, in a memo dated Sept. 24, is the list of names of the COVID-19 patients the health workers have attended to.
“Lalo ngayong pinalala. Pinalala yung ngayon nung bagong pinalabas po nilang bagong memo, bagong patakaran na kailangan po namin mag-submit ng mga pasyente na nahawakan namin,” Cristy Donguines, who heads the Jose Reyes Memorial Medical Center Employees Union chapter of the Alliance of Health Workers, said Wednesday.
[They’ve made it worse. It’s worse now with the new memo, new rule that we need to submit the (names of) the patients we’ve handled.]
“Napakamali naman noon Sir. Kasi kahit na ba naman sa opisina ka, ang mga hinahawakan mong papel, galing sa labas, hindi mo naman siya kailangang i-disinfect. Hindi mo naman siya pwedeng ibabad sa alcohol. Hindi mo rin siya pwedeng ibabad sa Zonrox, para lang ma-disinfect mo ang mga papel,” she said.
[That’s just so wrong, sir. Even if you work in an office, the papers you hold, they come from outside, you don’t need to disinfect. You can’t soak them in alcohol. You can’t soak them in Zonrox to disinfect the paper.]
“So lahat ng papel na yun na hinahawakan ng mga nasa admin natin, nasa offices natin, ay galing yan sa mga ward. Umikot ýun sa buong hospital,” she said.
[So those papers that have been held by the admin, in our offices, they came from the wards. They go around the whole hospital.]
Donguines said it is a wrong move on the part of the DOH to categorize health workers as those who directly attend to COVID-19 patients, and those who do not.
“Kinokondena po natin yang ganyang klaseng sistema po dahil once pumasok po tayo sa mga hospital po, risky na po talaga ang pagpasok natin. Dahil itong kalaban po natin na virus ay hindi natin nakikita. So anytime, anywhere tsaka kahit saan ka mapunta, pwede ka maapektuhan ng COVID-19 virus po,” she said.
[We condemn this kind of system because once we enter a hospital, it’s really risky. Our enemy is an unseen virus. So anytime, anywhere we go, we can be affected by the COVID-19 virus.]
“So napakalaking kamalian po at hindi tama ang ginagawa po sa atin ng Department of Health at ng gobyerno po natin na magkakaroon ng categorization po,” she said.
[This is a great injustice and the Department of Health and the government are not doing right by us by allowing categorization like this.]
