Durano sees Davide health program comes back to life

BAKUD GUBERNATORIAL bet Ace Durano welcomed Governor Gwen Garcia’s move in hiring additional 72 medical personnel after two years since the Covid-19 pandemic started.

“Maayo na, that’s the step in the right direction para mabawi iya gihimo pag-2019, nga na-undang ang health program ni Vice Governor Davide,” Durano said. 

He said under the health program of former Governor Davide, then Provincial Health Officer Dr. Rene Catan conducted a massive recruitment drive to bring doctors and specialists to the district and provincial hospitals. 

“An effective health system needs first and foremost, competent people and to get these competent people, you have to give them an offer that they can’t refuse. Mao na ang gihimo ni Dr. Catan and Governor Davide sa ilang panahon. It was so effective that they even got one whole graduating batch of anesthesiologists sa PGH (Philippine General Hospital) and kani na sila mismo ning contact sa ilang mga kauban, ‘dali, diri ta sa Cebu trabaho,” Durano said.

He said the young doctors were enticed to work in the provincial and district hospitals because they were offered a monthly wage of P85,000 under Davide’s health program. However, this was slashed to just P54,500 when Garcia took over as governor. 

“An effective health system is not only about having the right facilities, it’s having the right people and it’s good that by hiring 72 medical personnel, Governor Garcia is beginning to see that and iya i-abandon kato iya 2019 plan to hire 1,000 personnel via the outsourcing firm LBP Services Corporation. Dili man na Johnny-come-lately na comment. Kadako ato nga balita sa 2019, nakadungog ta ato tanan, kay kita ato tanan na-apektuhan,”Durano, a former Tourism secretary, said. 

He said when Garcia took over as governor, at least 300 doctors and nurses hired under Davide also left. Durano hopes Capitol will add more to the 72 it hired in 20 months to bring the level of effectiveness of the district and provincial hospitals up to 2016 levels. 

“Maayo nga kaning 72 directly hired, dili na i-outsource. Kay katong ni-announce sila nga ang mga doctors i-outsource through LBP services, ang agency sad ni-pagawas ug ad for doctors sa Cebu nga ang sweldo between P45,000 and P50,000 pero ang plantilla kay for P54,500,” Durano said. (With a report from Cebu Examiner)