THE Provincial Government of Negros Occidental needs to fill the 1,335 vacant positions in the 11 district hospitals to comply with the requirement of the Department of Health (DOH), or else the hospitals will be closed.
Provincial Budget Officer Jose Percival Salado Jr. said that while the budget for these personnel is ready under the 2018 Provincial Budget, it is the Provincial Human Resource Management Office that delays the hiring process.
“All budget requirements for the said vacancies in the 11 hospitals run by the Provincial Government under the Hospital Operations Department have been ready,” he said, adding that documents were already submitted to the Department of Budget and Management.
Salado said the administrative officers of the 11 hospitals have been concerned that in March this year, they may face closure when the DOH will inspect their facilities.
He said those who will be given priority to fill up the vacant permanent positions are the casual employees who were contractual employees in previous years.
“We are in need of nurses, medical technologists, pharmacists, and even laboratory aides. We are now operating departmentalized, which means we will hire OB gyne, pediatricians, internal medicine specialists, surgeons and anaesthesiologists to fully operate the hospital,” Salado said.
“By March, warm bodies should be assigned in the hospitals for the DOH to see them personally. We have no problem as far as applicants is concerned because there are several applicants. It’s the processing of the HR that’s slow,” he added.
