To achieve the ideal ratio of 10 physicians for every 10,000 individuals, Senator Cynthia Villar is pushing for the establishment of at least one medical school in each of the country’s 17 regions.
Villar also said State Universities and Colleges should work together with Department of Health-operated hospitals and start operating medical schools.
“We should start building medical schools in the provinces and providing scholarships to make the study of medicine affordable. If we do this, we will soon have more doctors,” Villar said.
“The lack of public medical schools and the prohibitive cost of studying medicine discourage the youth to even consider a career as a doctor,” she added.
She noted that 79,800 doctors are needed in order to achieve the ideal ratio of 10 physicians for every 10,000 individuals.
The senator, who served as chairperson of the Committee on Higher and Technical Education when she was Las Pinas Representative, said she will propose a provision in the bill that will list and identify the SUCs and the DOH-operated hospitals which will be mandated to work together to establish medical schools all over the country.
Senator Joel Villanueva, the principal sponsor of the bill, agreed to include the proposal of Villar in the final version of the bill.
Villar also said she was surprised to learn that out of the 114 SUCs, only nine SUCs have a medical school.
She said the absence of these institutions in highly-developed areas such as Cebu and Regions 3 Central Luzon, 4A Southern Tagalog and Region 11 Davao Region should also be addressed.
The Nacionalista Party senator also recommended to amend the law giving free college education to include scholarships in medicine.
She said that it is unfair that there is no scholarship for medicine and added that the Dapat scholarships offered in SUCs should be amended.
“Why is there no medicine? Doctors are so important. Doctors should be the exception because unlike other professions, they cannot practice unless they complete premed and medicine-proper courses, “ Villar said.
During the Senate deliberation on Senate Bill 1520 or the Medical Scholarship Bill, Villar said SUCs should be required to establish at least one medical school in all 17 regions of the country.
“Big SUCs should build at least one medical school in each region. If you establish a medical school in all 17 regions, we will meet the target number of doctors and they are in the entire Philippines. It wint happen that there’s a region without a doctor,” she said.