The Department of Health (DOH) deployed 15 doctors to Cebu City under their Doctors to the Barrio (DTTB) Program on Monday (June 29).
During an interview on ‘Get it Straight with Daniel Razon’, DOH Region 7 Spokesperson Dr. Jean Loreche assured that the doctors will receive proper training and compensation.
“Right now we have in our list six doctors to the barrios, dalawa ang deputized physicians natin. Mayroon po tayong from the AFP [Armed Forces of the Philippines] na seven po na ipapadala po nila from Luzon to be able to augment manpower here in Cebu City, she said.
The DTTB earlier slammed the DOH for its “abrupt exploitative order” in deploying doctors to Cebu City, saying the doctors were not properly informed about the situation.
“The DTTBs and the local chief executives should have been represented in decision-making involving this temporary reassignment. Failing to do so makes such directives exploitative for doctors and inconsiderate for the communities that they serve. There is complete disregard to the concerns of the doctors and the local chief executives,” the DTTB said in a statement on Sunday (June 28).
The DOH, meanwhile, defended that the the temporary deployment of doctors will help address the overwhelmed capacity of private hospitals in Cebu City.
“Cebu City’s health care system is overwhelmed with patient load at the moment,” according to the DOH statement on Monday.
Loreche, however, reported that the region’s health care system can still manage the surge of cases in Cebu City, contrary to the report of the DOH Central Office.
The DOH Region 7 official also reiterated that the surge of cases is due to the categorized testing they conducted last May where 45,000 residents underwent COVID-19 testing.
“So ito pong mga numero na nakikita natin ngayon dito sa Cebu City, ito lang po ay a reflection of the zero prevalence data na ginawa namin,” Loreche said.
The DOH Central earlier reported that the critical care utilization in Cebu City has already reached critical level which prompted the deployment of rural doctors to the area.
There are currently over 5,700 confirmed COVID-19 cases in the Cebu City. AAC (with reports from Aiko Miguel)
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