100 med students to compose first batch of ‘Pinoy MD Wanted’ scholars

A total of 100 students will compose the first batch of scholars who will enroll in medical schools this June under the government’s scholarship program called "Pinoy MD Wanted," the Department of Health (DOH) said.

According to Health Secretary Francisco Duque III, the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) has allocated P250 million for the program, which was designed to fill the shortage of Filipino doctors.

The shortage is deemed as a serious threat to the country’s health care system.

Under the scheme, the DOH will accept 100 full scholars every year, until they graduate with a degree in medicine. They will also be given allowances for transportation and other school needs.

Health Undersecretary Jade del Mundo said 100 students would enroll in 15 schools across the country. These schools have agreed to give discounts and other forms of assistance to the scholars.

The program was conceptualized as part of a 25-year Human Resource Masterplan for Health that is being drawn up by the DOH, the University of the Philippines’ National Institutes of Health and the World Health Organization to replace the departing doctors.

Del Mundo added the program includes a "payback scheme" in which the students are required to serve in the Philippines for two years for every year that they were scholars.

The DOH estimates that from 2000 to 2004, around 5,000 Filipino doctors have migrated abroad. And since 2003, government-run hospitals lost 400 to 450 physicians to foreign hospitals.

Health authorities fear that if the migration of doctors and other medical professionals continues, health care services in the Philippines will suffer tremendously.

The migrating doctors often work abroad as nurses, which are more in demand, although most of them are already specialists in their respective fields.

Duque said the issues surrounding the doctors’ exodus are "complex" and require global and multi-sectoral action.

"We have to recognize that (an) individual (has) rights to free movement and personal advancement. But we also have the duty to meet the right of every Filipino to good health," he said.