DUMAGUETE CITY, Negros Oriental, Sept. 7 (PIA) -- The local chief executive of Negros Oriental welcomed the move of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan (SP) to pass an ordinance increasing the salary of nurses working in hospitals managed by the provincial government.

Boad Member Manuel “Chaco” Sagarbarria has sponsored an ordinance before the Provincial Board which seeks to establish a minimum hiring rate for all augmentation personal hired by the provincial government here.

Under the said ordinance, nurses hired under the Contract of Services will now have a salary of P25,642.40.

“Salamat. It’s a long time. Kinahanglan na nako. Kinsa gud mangaplay nato kung ang atong sweldo sa nurse P16,000. Mao na nihangyo ko na ipasaka na at least P25,000 man lang, at least ang mga nurses moganahan pod motrabaho (Thank you. It’s a long time and I need it. Who will be interested to apply as nurse if we are giving them P16,000 salary? That is why I made an appeal to increase it to at least P25,000 so that we can entice nurses to work for us),” said Gov. Pryde Henry Teves in a press conference at the Capitol.

He added that that through this initiative, the provincial government would be able to convince nurses to work in state-run hospitals in the province and eventually deploy the adequate number of staff to address the lag in patient-to-medical staff ratio.

Teves has repeatedly stressed that improving the province’s healthcare system is one of the key thrusts of his administration.
Part of this also is to elevate the status of the Negros Oriental Provincial Hospital from Level 1 to Level 2 by January 2023 and to Level 3 by June.

On the other hand, he is also eyeing to raise the status of other hospitals of the provincial government from infirmary to at least Level 1.

Teves said the Department of Health already told him to fix first the patient-to-medical staff ratio of the provincial hospital which is essential for its accreditation to Level 2 status.

He said the recommended figure is around 1 is to 12.

If the provincial government will not be able to comply with this, then they will fail the accreditation.

Aside from standardizing the salary of nurses, Sagarbarria’s proposed ordinance also pegs the salary of the following positions: Medical Officer III to P59,353/month, Medical Officer III (part time) to P29,676/month, Medical Technologist I to P17,852.80/month, Nurse I (part time) to P12,821.20/month, Pharmacist I to P17,852.80/month, Radiologic Technologist I to P17,852.80/month, Midwife I to P15,027.20/month, Nutritionist-Dietetician I to P17,852.80/month, Physical Therapy Technician I to P12,419.20, Respiratory Therapist I to P16,175.20/month, and Physical Therapist 1 to P17,852.80/month.

In a similar development, Teves also is also requesting the SP to pass an ordinance institutionalizing the increase in the honorarium of barangay health workers and enrolling them in Social Security System to provide social protection for them.

The local chief executive emphasized that all these initiatives are geared towards achieving his administration’s vision of making Negros Oriental a “self-sufficient most livable province in the Visayas region by 2028.” (RAL/PIA7 Negros Oriental)