THE chairman of the Senate Finance Committee on Sunday lent his full support to pending measures expanding the grant of pandemic-related benefits, particularly the special risk allowance (SRA), to all health workers and not just medical frontliners directly working in Covid wards.
Sen. Juan Edgardo Angara said he will raise the issue of funding for health workers’ benefits as well at an all-senators’ caucus expected to be called Monday or Tuesday, as the chamber ramps up deliberations on urgent matters before going on a six-week recess starting September 30.
In a radio interview, Angara affirmed it is but fair to give all health workers a measure of pandemic benefits since all of them face risks from exposure, albeit at varying degrees, to Covid infections, which have surged in recent weeks owing to the delta variant.
Moreover, Angara eased apprehensions that the placement of Covid-19 vaccine procurement under “unprogrammed” expenditures in the 2022 budget could cause disruption in the pandemic response.
As shown in past experience, Angara pointed out, lawmakers and the Executive can together spot areas in the budget that can be shifted in order to yield savings for urgent requirements.
Villanueva’s push
At the same time, Senator Joel Villanueva backed calls for hazar pays and risk allowance for healthcare workers exposed to Covid contagion.
“All healthcare workers should be given hazard pay and allowances for risking exposure to Covid-19 every day in private and public health institutions, Villanueva said in a separate statement Sunday.
At a Senate hearing last week on Senate Bill No. 2371, to be known as the Benefits for Healthcare Workers Act, Villanueva not only endorsed a proposal doubling the Special Risk Allowances (SRA) and Active Hazard Duty Pay (AHDP) for healthcare workers, but also suggested that the measure widen the reach of the benefits to include non-medical HCWs.
“We are suggesting that we broaden the scope of the bill to include the non-medical healthcare workers,” Villanueva, chairman of the Senate labor committee, proposed at the hearing.
Under the bill, medical HCWs include doctors, nurses, nursing assistants, medtechs, midwives, radiology technicians, pharmacists and caregivers. Non-medical HCWs, meanwhile, are those who work in private and public health institutions such as barangay health workers, admin staff, utility workers, social workers, dietary staff, security guard, drivers and hospital employees.
“Non-medical healthcare workers are also at risk of contracting Covid-19 in the workplace since they won’t know who among those they interact with has Covid,” Villanueva said partly in Filipino, noting that “the virus is airborne and the Delta variant is highly transmissible.”
At the same time, he lamented that saying non-medical HCW are not entitled to SRA and AHDP “ignores the reality that they are also at risk of getting the virus in the workplace.”
In fact, Villanueva noted, the case fatality rate of non-medical HCWs is not far behind that of medical HCWs. DOH data puts the case fatality rate of nurses at 1 percent, and doctors at 0.3 percent. Although the numbers are far less than their medical HCW counterparts, the fatality case rate for hospital employees is at 4.3 percent, 1.1 percent for admin staff and 0.7 percent for barangay health workers.”
Villanueva said the latest Covid-19 case tally of non-medical HCWs reached 2,157 of the 24,895 cases of all HCWs, or about 8.7 percent of the total COVID-19 cases of HCWs.
The senator stressed the need to make evidence-based and data-driven policy decisions, starting with accurate and reliable data on the number of healthcare workers. While DOH counts 526,727 HCWs in its initial computation of the needed COVID-19 benefits, the total number of HCWs could be higher.
He noted that “with reliable data, we can also determine how much will be needed for other benefits, such as Covid-19 claims and meals, accommodation, and transportation allowances.”
Villanueva said there are ways to address delays in the release of the SRA and AHDP in order to expedite the process if priority is given to medical frontliners.
“I believe that our priority should be our health workers, their benefits and their health and safety. How is it so hard for us to realize that? So, if you will allow me to make a suggestion: Prioritize the process of downloading the funds to the hospitals. Let’s see if the process is speeded up if we have a fixed instead of a pro-rated system of benefits,” Villanueva said.