If only the Department of Health (DOH) is to decide, they will give a special allowance to health workers in the hospital even if they are not in the COVID-19 wards-but it is not yet possible.
One of the calls today of the Alliance of Health Workers (AHW) is to include in the “special risk allowance” (SRA) hospital healthcare workers who are exposed to many patients on a daily basis but are outside the COVID-19 sections of the hospital.
“Kung pwede lang, we will do that… Sa lahat ng sektor and agencies, kami po sa DOH ang kakampi ng healthcare workers. Healthcare worker din kami,” Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said at a media briefing, Friday.
“Pero [as] much as we want to give [it] everybody, we are limited by the existing laws and policies that we have right now in the country.”
He said that the law stipulates that those who will be given SRA must serve COVID-19 patients directly, something that the DOH is following.
It was only in June that the Department of Budget and Management released P9.02 billion in funding for the SRA of healthcare workers exposed to COVID-19, something drawn from Bayanihan 1 and 2. practitioners from the public and private sectors from December 2020 to June 2021 consequently.
DOH speaks up on risk allowance of non-COVID health workers
As a consolation, Vergeire said that healthcare workers have hazard pay, even those who do not directly use COVID-19 patients.
“[M]eron na hong Magna Carta for Healthcare Workers ang ating mga public healthcare workers. Itong magna carta na ito, specific po ‘yan sa batas, na sinasabi because healthcare workers are exposed to different risks and hazards… kaya meron na pong hazard pay po talaga ang healthcare workers,” the DOH official added.
“Noong ipinatupad po ang [SRA], it was recognized kasi na this COVID-19 is a special risk na kinakaharap na naman ng ating mga healthcare workers. Kaya po this is on top of the existing hazard pay according to magna carta.”
Vergeire said she understands that anyone working in the hospital is still at high risk in COVID-19 due to the nature of such a facility, but that is why the wards allegedly segregate health workers.
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