This year, the plight of health workers and the dire conditions of the country’s public health system were highlighted amid the raging pandemic.
By JANESS ANN J. ELLAO
Bulatlat.com
MANILA – A group of community doctors and health advocates congratulated newly-passed doctors as the Professional Regulation Commission announced earlier today.
“As new medical professionals, may you be able to diagnose beyond what you see and use your knowledge and compassion to detest injustice that breeds social disease. And therefore, prescribe medications that not will not only battle the ailment but help facilitate empowerment of the people to address deeper social maladies,” the Council for Health and Development said in a statement.
There are 3,538 board passers out of the 4,704 that took the 2020 Physician’s Licensure Examinations. Topping this year is Jomel Garcia Lapides, who was also in the news back in 2011 after getting the highest rating in the nursing licensure examination.
This year, the already dire situation of the country’s public health system and poor working conditions of health workers were further exposed, if not exacerbated by the raging pandemic. Among those who tested positive were medical frontliners themselves, who often decried the lack of protective gear and regular COVID-19 testing.
Read: Study reveals poor protection for health workers amid fight vs. COVID-19
The CHD, which advocates for community-based health programs, said that doctors are in a “privileged position to see the suffering of the poor” and invited them to be at the frontlines of “fighting for the people’s right to health and a better future.”
“May you hear and listen to their stories and symptoms, and treat not just their illness but also situations of injustice. We must strive to prevent their return to an environment that will promote disease and render our treatments useless,” the group said. 
To view the results of the 2020 Physician’s Licensure Examinations, click here:
