By Nimfa Estrellado October 17, 2020 Senator Joel Villanueva and Rep. Helen Tan ...
October 17, 2020
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| Senator Joel Villanueva and Rep. Helen Tan |
LUCENA CITY - On Thursday, October 13, the Senate ratified the "Doktor Para sa Bayan Act". Filipinos will now have access to free medical education and the country’s human resources for public health will be expanded because the Senate ratifies the “Doktor Para sa Bayan Act, which was described as a “landmark legislation” by Senator Joel Villanueva. The bill provides medical scholarships and a return service program for those who want to become doctors.
"We are at war and the doctors are the combatants. Just as we train soldiers in peace time, so must we train more in times of war. So, let it be now, with doctors and physicians. Unfortunately, we only have 9 public medical schools in the country while medical education remains the most expensive course in the Philippines. Ngayon po, kahit sinong Pilipino, anuman ang antas sa buhay, kaya nang tuparin ang pangarap na maging doktor."Sen. Joel Villanueva, chairman of the Committee on Higher, Technical and Vocational Education, thanks to colleagues for their “overwhelming support” for the passage of Senate Bill No. 1520, or the “Doktor Para sa Bayan Act,” during Monday’s hybrid session, September 14, 2020.
"Many of our medical graduates leave the country to practice medicine abroad. Some have even opted to go back to school to become certified nurses just to get out of the country to work elsewhere. As a lamentable and evident result, we suffer the horrendous scarcity of medical doctors, serving, specially our underprivileged countrymen. Our present doctor to population ratio is at 3 is to 10,000. The World Health Organization recommended a ratio of 10 is to 10,000." he said
"With the passage of SB 1520 or "Doktor Para sa Bayan Act" Bill, there is hope now that our situation can change. We will give free medical education to poor and deserving students in all our regions but we will also require them to render a return service, fitting and proper to the Filipino people, from medical doctors who were educated from the government's coffers." he added
The other main authors are House Health Committee Chairman Rep. Angelina Tan and Deputy Speaker and CIBAC Rep. Bro. Eddie Villanueva, a member of the Bicameral Conference Committee Bro. Eddie Villanueva expressed gratitude to the House, led by Speaker Lord Allan Velasco, for its immediate intervention.
“The medical scholarship and return service program for deserving students have now become even more important in the face of the current COVID-19 pandemic. I do not doubt that the enactment of this measure is one of the enormously significant reforms which time has come,” Tan said.
Due to the recent COVID 19 epidemic, as one of the requirements for the medical scholarship, Tan proposed an amendment to the final version of the approved billing service in the public health office or government hospital in times of pandemic or public health emergency.
“The bill, which is one of the early legislations that I crafted during my first term, is among my priority legislative measures and is my personal response to what I have seen as an enormously urgent need of the masses of our people for medical services, especially those living in the remote areas. The medical scholarship and return service program is the best possible solution in addressing the need of the marginalized Filipinos for the provision of professional healthcare services in the country”, Tan said.
The bill provides a program of medical scholarship and returns service, which offers scholarships to eligible students who wish to become doctors. It seeks to encourage students to take up medicine and help increase the country's doctor-patient ratio, which, according to health department statistics, is currently at a miserable three doctors per 10,000 population. To comply with the WHO-prescribed ratio of 10 doctors per 10,000 populations, the nation needs to produce more than 80,000 doctors.
For his part, Villanueva said the bill will create a Medical Scholarship and Return Service Program for eligible prioritized Filipino students for qualified applicants from municipalities without government doctors to ensure that at least one doctor is assigned to each municipality in the country.
"This bill provides free tuition and other school fees including allowances and fees for internship, medical board review and licensure examination and sets conditions on the scholarship grant such as the requirements for scholars to finish the entire Doctor of Medicine Program within the prescribed time frame and to render a return of service equivalent to the number of years he or she has availed of the scholarship." Villanueva said in his speech.
"It will also consolidate and harmonizes all Nationally-Funded Medical Scholarship Programs under the Medical Scholarship and Return Service Program as well as require the Commission on Higher Education to streamline the requirements for the application for authority to offer Doctor of Medicine Program," Villanueva added.
Implementing the measure would reinforce cooperation between state universities and colleges with government hospitals to increase the number of medical schools across the country, with at least one state-operated medical school in one area, he added.
The Senator also revealed that a transitory clause was included in the measure requiring all scholars to be immediately eligible for benefits under the current medical scholarship programs of the Health Department and CHED.
In its first year, the bill aims to double the number of scholars under the existing DOH and CHED scholarship programs, which currently have around 3,000 scholars, Villanueva explained.
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