Operation tuli held

The VPHCS joined a series of operation tuli  launched this summer, as in previous years.

The VPHCS team of doctors and volunteers joined the annual operation tuli in the Municipality of Baclayon, Bohol on May 2  where more than 250 boys were circumcised.  The local government unit of Baclayon sponsored the tuli.    The VPHCS team which helped the staff of the Baclayon Rural Health Unit was composed of Dr. Grace Molina, Dr. Oliver Gimenez, Irish Ramirez, Edgar Gahisan, Emelie Fernandez, and Linda de Castro.   Nursing students of the Students’ Alliance for Community Health Services (SACHS) also helped in the services.

VPHCS staff Irish Ramirez  circumcises  a boy in Baclayon.

VPHCS staff Emelie Fernandez in Baclayon tuli.

VPHCS team of volunteers also joined another tuli in Poblacion Medellin, which was organized by the Perez Monasque Foundation.   More than 200 boys benefitted from the free circumcision held on May 5.

Mothers and their boys wait for their turn during the tuli in Medellin sponsored by the Perez Monasque Foundation on May 5, 2012.

VPHCS team and volunteers pose with members of the Perez Monasque Foundation during the tuli in Medellin on May 5.

VPHCS volunteers in the operation tuli in Medellin.

The VPHCS also lent its tuli instruments during  two free circumcisions organized by the local government units of Paknaan  and Labogon, Mandaue City on May 19 and 26, respectively.  The activities were held in coordination with the Cebu Institute of Medicine- Community Medico-Social Services (CIM-CMSS) in Paknaan.  Dr. Erlinda Posadas, staff of the VPHCS and also a faculty member of the CIM joined medical students and resident doctors of the medical school in rendering the circumcision services. More than 350 boys benefitted from the two occasions.

Medical students and doctors of the Cebu Institute of Medicine together with VPHCS staff Dr. Erlinda Posadas,  and Labogon barangay captain Damaso Tumulak and health center personnel in the tuli on May 26, 2012. 

Gov’t temporary employment program for nurses “exploitative”

By Anne Marxze D. Umil
Bulatlat.com

MANILA – The government has found a new way of creating jobs for unemployed nurses in the country. But for progressive health workers, this new employment scheme of the Department of Health (DOH) is deceiving and exploits newly-registered nurses.

The RN Heals or the Registered Nurses for Health Enhancement and Local Service is an employment program of the government to “address” the unemployment problem of nurses in the country. The program was launched by the DOH in February 2011.

(Photo by Anne Marxze D. Umil/Bulatlat.com)

According to an article, more than 59,000 nurses applied for the program but only 10,000 nurses were accommodated by the program. Those selected were deployed to 1,221 rural communities nationwide.

The DOH partnered with the Department of Labor and Employment for the said program. Similar to the previous program of the government called the Nurses Assigned in Rural Services (Nars), nurses under the RN Heals program are also deployed to rural areas where health services are very much needed.

However, RN Heals provides only temporary employment. “This temporary employment program initiated by the government does not at all heal the pestering labor problems besetting the nursing profession for the longest time now,” Ma. Eleonor Nolasco, of Nars ng Bayan said.

Nolasco is also a registered nurse and a community health nurse. She is the founding president and current vice president of Nars ng Bayan, an association of community health nurses and people’s health advocates.

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On Health Workers Day, health workers reiterate demand for salary hike, stop to privatization

By ANNE MARXZE D. UMIL
Bulatlat.com

MANILA – Leopoldo Merdanio, 40, is a registered nurse working at the San Lazaro Hospital. He is single but his P17,000 ($404) monthly salary is just enough for him, his mother and grandmother to be able to live and eat decent meals three times a day.

However, he is worried that as prices of basic commodities are soaring his monthly salary might not be enough to cover his family’s expenses.

“We have long been calling for an increase but it falls on deaf ears. What’s worse is that the government is reducing our benefits,” Merdanio told Bulatlat.com.

Republic Act 10069 declares May 7 as National Health Workers Day “to give due recognition to the important role and contributions of the health workers who provide vital health services to our people and to promote their rights and welfare and enhance their sense of worth and dignity.”

However, Merdanio and hundreds of health workers gathered on May 7 this year not to celebrate but to cry out for justice as the government continues to deprive them of their rights and that of the people they serve as well. Health workers from different hospitals, clinics, agencies and institutions marched from España Avenue to Chino Roces Bridge (former Mendiola bridge).

“We cry out for an immediate relief from our comatose state – health workers are battered with low salaries, inadequate benefits, inhumane working conditions and lack of job security.

These are the results of the worsening crisis and aggravated by the continuing implementation of cost-cutting, privatization and contractualization policies of President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III administration,” the Alliance of Health Workers (AHW) said in a statement.

Health workers are demanding for a P6,000 ($142) increase in the salaries of the lowest salary grade in the sector. They are also demanding for an upgrade to salary grade 15 for nurse 1 and salary grade 24 for doctors.

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