‘Limited practice’ of medical graduates OK’d to augment COVID frontliners

BY GENALYN KABILING

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THE government has allowed the “limited practice” of medical graduates as a last resort to aug­ment healthcare personnel bat­tling the COVID-19 pandemic.

Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles said the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Emerging Infectious Diseases has adopted the “Interim Guidelines for the Granting of Special Authoriza­tion for the Limited Practice of Medical Graduates” as pre­sented by the Department of Health.

“Special authorizations shall only be issued as a last resort,” Nograles said. “Any authoriza­tion shall only be effective for the duration of the State of Public Health Emergency in the Philippines unless earlier withdrawn by the IATF upon recommendation of the DoH,” he added.

The latest decision came after the task force recommended the lifting of the deployment ban on Filipino health workers with ex­isting work contracts abroad.

The Philippine Overseas Em­ployment Administration had earlier temporarily suspended the deployment of healthcare personnel abroad to meet the demands of the COVID-19 threat in the county. Some groups, however, called for a review of the decision that supposedly violates a person’s right to travel and contractual right to work abroad.

According to Nograles, all medical and allied healthcare professionals with perfected and signed overseas employ­ment contracts as of March 8, 2020 shall be allowed for de­ployment abroad.

Before leaving the country, he said the health workers must execute a declaration signifying their knowledge and under­standing of the risks involved as advised by the Philippine government.

He said the IATF has also di­rected the Health department to facilitate the emergency hiring of additional healthcare workers to assist in the local healthcare system. The hiring of personnel will be subject to the evaluation of the Depart­ment of Budget and Manage­ment.