President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. has approved the hiring of 1,224 additional healthcare workers for the Philippine General Hospital (PGH) over three years.
The recruitment initiative gets its funding from the Department of Budget and Management (DBM). This funding support comes in response to a request from the University of the Philippines-Manila, the university overseeing PGH. The new slots will be filled in four phases, starting in the 1st quarter of 2025.
DBM Secretary Amenah Pangandaman said this would be aligned with the directive of the President to make quality healthcare accessible to those who need it most.
Also, justifying the expansion of the workforce, Atty. Claire Castro, undersecretary of the Presidential Communications Office, cited the critical role that PGH plays as a primary healthcare provider for financially disadvantaged Filipinos. She also said that a bigger staff would equate to improved services in patient care and quicker treatment for healthcare seekers.
PGH is a Level III general hospital with a bed capacity of 1,334, and more than 600 patients attend its services yearly. Cries for budget increases towards PGH and other public hospitals have long resounded among health advocates and stakeholders pushing for good services, affordable and accessible, throughout the country.
In its message in March, the Department of Health (DOH) announced that the PGH emergency room had already reached full capacity, prompting some arrangements for alternate accommodation to be made available for overflow patients pending transfer. These are expected to relieve the pressure exerted by the suppression of such hospital activities with the aim of better healthcare delivery in the future.
