The Department of Health has taken pro-active measures to prevent a drain of the country's doctors, with the exodus of many for higher paying jobs abroad as nurses, Health Regional Director Lydia Depra Ramos said yesterday.

The DOH, together with the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office and the Department of Education, is undertaking the "Doctor Pinoy Program" that sponsors medical school scholars in exchange for their services for at least five years after graduation, Ramos said.

We would like to have enrollees this coming school year, she said, adding that, with this program, there will be no lack of doctors.

"We want to be prepared because we don't want our health system to collapse. What would happen to Filipinos if all our doctors would be serving other countries?" she asked.

We also trying to inspire doctors to stay on through the medical economics of PhilHealth, she said.

Ramos lauded the provincial government of Negros Occidental and many of its local governments for their "excellent measures to improve health services."

I have seen beautiful city health offices and happy health workers in Escalante, Calatrava, San Carlos, Toboso and Sagay, she said.

The provincial hospital being built in Silay is also expected to have state of art equipment and I congratulate Gov. Joseph Marañon for this. We would like to replicate these in other areas, she said.

DOH INTERVENTIONS

Ramos also said that, because rabies is becoming a problem in Western Visayas, the DOH is coming up with low cost intervention through a campaign to neuter male dogs.

It seems most of the local government units are supportive of this move, she said. This will help keep down the ever-increasing dog population, she said.

She also said the DOH is licensing the inter-local health zone pharmacies and the Botikas ng Barangay to come up with a distribution system for affordable good quality medicine.*CPG

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