MANILA — To build a strong health system for the Philippines, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Department of Health (DOH) on Tuesday launched a project that will capacitate healthworkers to ensure that Filipinos have access to the adequate health care.
“In this particular program, we will be assisting the deployment, training, and the developmentt of Filipino healthworkers– from doctors to midwives –to ensure that all Filipinos have access to healthcare,” USAID Mission Director Lawrence Hardy II said in an interview during the project launching of National Human Resource for Health in 2030 (HRH 2030) in Manila.
Hardy said that the capacity-building training under the project will address the maldistribution of healthworkers across the country.
Aside from providing training on the deployment and management of healthworkers, USAID will also embark on improving the competency and skill of healthworkers in providing access of people to quality family planning, maternal and child health and tuberculosis service for the vulnerable populations.
In addition, aside from improving the competency at the primary level, the USAID will also be assisting the healthworkers to develop policies for that will aid in responding to the changing health needs of the people through improved compensation/incentive packages and working conditions to encourage retention of local health workforce.
USAID provided an investment worth US$15 million dollars or roughly PHP750 million for the undertaking.
In his speech, DOH Secretary Francisco Duque III said the department sees the partnership as very timely.
“The two-year (and hopefully, three-year) USAID HRH 2030 Philippines Collaboration comes at an opportune time to assist the department in developing strategic solutions to the national challenges on human resources,” read Duque’s message delivered by Undersecretary Roger Tong-an.
To date, Duque said that the country is still in the process of improving the health workforce situation with a vision to achieve a people-centered service delivery network on the national health agenda.
The agenda envisions Filipinos will be among the healthiest people in Southeast Asia by 2022 and in Asia by 2040.
With the partnership, the DOH also aims to address critical issues in providing competititve compensation and incentive packages to retain them especially in geographically isolated areas.
Currently, the estimated healthworker to population in the Philippines is 16.7 per 10,000 population.
“This does not reach even half of the recommended World Health Organization target,” Duque said. (Leilani Junio/PNA)
