“We must listen to the pleas and concerns of our heroic health workers. Let us give them the protection and support they need so they can save more Filipinos from COVID-19.”
These were the words of Senator Risa Hontiveros, who said the government must prioritize additional protection and assistance for medical frontliners to address both the COVID-19 pandemic and the ‘distress signal’ by health workers across the country.
The senator made the call as she presented last August 3, 2020 an alternative “roadmap to recovery” which offers humane, inclusive and health-centric recommendations to help strengthen the country’s healthcare system and to restore jobs and businesses lost due to the pandemic.
PPEs, tests, assistance for frontliners
Among the top recommendations made by Hontiveros is to prioritize efforts to protect and expand the ranks of frontliners, amid the drastic rise in COVID-19 cases nationwide. Particularly, Hontiveros said, government must better secure the availability of personal protective equipment (PPE), as well as proper COVID-19 testing, for every health worker serving in facilities treating COVID-19 patients.
“At this point many health workers and frontliners have already fallen ill from the lack of adequate protective gear. We should do more to prevent our heroic health frontliners as they perform their crucial duties,” she said.
Hontiveros added that government should ensure that health workers are actually receiving the additional benefits and allowance – such as hazard pay – that have been promised to them by Malacañang.
Likewise, government should also look into upgrading the overall compensation packages of public health workers so more doctors and nurses will respond positively to employment offers in government hospitals and facilities, she said.
“How we respond to these needs of our healthworkers will reflect how much we really value the lives of the Filipino people,” she stressed.
Mass testing, monitoring, more accountability
Apart from support to health workers, Hontiveros’ roadmap to recovery included more recommendations under its ‘six-point plan’ to upgrade the country’s overall health response against the COVID-19 pandemic.
These recommendations include improving the country’s monitoring of COVID-19 cases by activating epidemiology and surveillance units (ESUs) in local government units, as well as further expanding mass testing to target densely populated urban poor communities and other hotspots for infection.
Hontiveros also urged government to ensure better coordination of health facilities in areas with large number of COVID-19 patients, by establishing ‘hospital command centers’ and designating ‘COVID-19 hospitals’ that will serve critically-ill patients.
The senator said that programs under the existing Universal Healthcare Act must be maximized so that even poor families can receive proper healthcare amid the pandemic. However, Hontiveros, said, government must also ensure that public spending on COVID-19 response are made with more transparency and accountability, by subjecting such transactions to special audits.
“Lockdowns alone will not be enough to defeat this pandemic. Waiting for China to have a vaccine is not a good plan. We have to have a comprehensive and effective strategy so we can save both Filipino lives and the economy alike amid this crisis,” she concluded.