The Oriental Negros government is starting to experience the difficulty of hiring highly-trained doctors for key positions, and provincial health officer Ely Villapando attributes this to the growing number of physicians seeking work abroad as nurses.

Villapando said the province has been looking for applicants for chiefs of the Bindoy District Hospital and the Canlaon City Hospital but none have applied up to now.

He said Dr. Edgardo Pialogo, head of the Bindoy District Hospital, will be transferred shortly to the Guihulngan District Hospital, while Dr. Edward Sibala, chief of the Canlaon City Hospital, is leaving for abroad.

Villapando said Sibala did not inform him about his plans in going to other countries, but has already notified him that he is resigning his post. Sibala is also a registered nurse.

"We have been advertising the position among government doctors but nobody is applying for it," Villapando said, adding that Dr. Chelsa Cacaldo, in charge of the primary community hospitals in the province, also intends to leave.

There are six primary community hospitals established in the hinterland villages of Oriental Negros.

Gov. George Arnaiz had earlier said that these hospitals might be closed down if there are no doctors.

Villapando said the province will also experience an exodus of government doctors between October and November this year because, of the 43 doctors at the Negros Oriental Provincial Hospital in Dumaguete, only seven did not study nursing, while the rest are already registered nurses, and are now apparently preparing their documents and requirements to work abroad.

Last year, seven NOPH doctors left to work as nurses abroad.*

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