By Raadee Sausa September 23, 2020 Rep. Angelina Tan of the 4th District of Quezon United Nations Trusteeship Chambers LUCENA CITY - The Hou...
September 23, 2020
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| Rep. Angelina Tan of the 4th District of Quezon United Nations Trusteeship Chambers |
LUCENA CITY - The House committee on health has endorsed the formation of a medical reserve corps to augment the country’s health personnel in cases of pandemics and other health emergencies.
Rep. Angelina Tan of the 4th District of Quezon also Committee on Health chairman approved the creation of a technical working group tasked to consolidate at least eight bills related to the formation of a reserve national medical network.
"Medical reservists are needed in times like this when we are going through a COVID-pandemic. They are also needed in case of disasters,” Tan, author of one of the bills, said recently.
Under the bill, the Department of Health (DOH) will be mandated to organize the reserve medical network, which will be composed of licensed physicians, including those retired, graduates of medicine, medical students who have completed four years of the medical course, registered nurses, and licensed allied health professionals.
The bill states that the reserve group “shall be so organized, trained, developed, and maintained as to ensure its readiness to immediately respond to the call to service.”
The creation of a reserve medical corps will strengthen the national preparedness and response of the government to public health emergencies.
Moreover, the lawmaker pointed out that such measures would help healthcare workers who are exhausted amid the pandemic, saying that many hospitals in Metro Manila and other parts of the country are already short of medical staff.
“Many of our healthcare workers are exhausted physically, mentally, and emotionally. They have to take a rest,” Tan said.
“This is one of the reasons why they called for a timeout three weeks ago. If we have a reserve force, they could temporarily take the place of tired health workers who have to take a break from toxic and risky work,” she added.
Other authors of related bills are Deputy Speaker Luis Raymund Villafuerte, Rep. Joy Myra Tambunting, Rep. Alfred Vargas, Rep. David Suarez, Rep. Rufus Rodriguez, Rep. Paul Daza, Rep. Estrellita Suansing, and Rep. Horacio Suansing.
Once the measure is approved at the committee level, it will be transmitted to the plenary floor for further debates. It still needs to be approved on second and third readings to completely hurdle the House.
The Senate must also come up with its own version of the measure and approve it in its own chamber.
The approval of measure instituting the medical reserve corps was among the calls made by President Rodrigo Duterte in his fifth State of the Nation Address.
Moreover, the House Committee on Civil Service and Professional Regulation also approved a bill updating the standards and regulation of doctors.
The approved substitute bill or the Physicians’ Act seeks to repeal the outdated “Medical Act of 1959” to respond to scientific advancements and the medical landscape of modern times.
Tan said the bill will cover the regulation of medical education, which is inclusive of clinical clerkship, post-graduate medical internship, licensure, and residency program.
It also seeks to establish the “Integrated National Professional Organization of the Physicians,” which will serve as the national organization to which all physicians will become a mandatory member. It will be patterned after the Integrated Bar of the Philippines for lawyers.
The bill also creates a Post-Graduate Medical Education and sets regulations governing medical residency training to provide humane working conditions for residents, including decent salary and other benefits, and higher standards of professional.
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