Aug 25, 2024

Below is the Report of Dr. Hernan Reyes

           Summary: Virtual Meeting between representatives of DOH, Philippines, SPSA and PCS Sure Commission: Friday, August 16, 2024 (8:00 pm Manila; 8:00 am ET; 5:00 am PT)

DOH Participants: Director Dr. Johanna Banzon, Dr. William, Jr – DOH Resident Deployment Program

PCS Sure Commission: Dr. Beda Espineda, Chairman

SPSA: Drs. Hernan Reyes, Bayani Ignacio, Philip Chua and Ed Barcelona

PURPOSE:

Explore the possibility of developing a partnership with DOH Resident Deployment Program with the SPSA-PCS Sure Commission Outreach Program specifically, to incorporate a three month  rotation of a designated General Surgeon enrolled in the DOH program to serve as General Surgeon for the SPSA-PCSRural Surgery Outreach Program at a designated Hospital venue, during which time, he/she will receive a grant on top of the salary received from the Government.

DOH Deployment Program:

Surgical residents in a Public Hospital who have completed their residency enters into a contractual arrangement with the DOH deployment program for a year and assigned for a period of twelve months to a specific hospital as agreed upon by the surgeon and DOH. This contract precludes an extraneous rotation outside of the contract. Further, the surgeon is not allowed to receive any renumeration from any source other than the salary he/she receives from the government.

Recommendations:

1. Explore ways of getting around this contractual agreement with the DOH deployment program.

Other Discussions:

1. Offer Travel fellowship grants to public hospital residents in surgery to attend PCS Annual Convention or other Continuing Medical Education programs or Specialty Fellowship programs locally or abroad.
2. Current ratio of General Surgeons in practice in the Philippines in Urban and Rural communities.
3. Reasons for lack of General surgeons practicing in the Philippines. A. Not enough Residency Programs in General surgery; B. Maldistribution (Graduates prefer to practice in Urban communities rather than in rural areas).
4. Government support of Graduate Medical Education to increase number of teaching hospitals in all medical and surgical disciplines.
5. Philip Chua suggested the development of Private/Public partnerships between DOH, Provincial Governors and local leaders of the Business community.

Submitted by:

Hernan M. Reyes, MD, FACS

Chair, SPSA Oversight Committee, Rural Surgery Outreach Program August 20, 2024

Below is a follow up Report of Dr. Hernan Reyes and his suggestion to extend our Pilot Program

To: Members, SPSA Oversight Committee, Rural Surgery Outreach Program

Status Report: SPSA-PCS Sure Commission Rural Surgery Outreach Program

Please be informed that I recently received communication from Dr. Beda Espineda, Chair, PCS Sure Commission that Dr. Robert Chacon, Chief of Surgery and Medical Director, Sorsogon Provincial Hospital is requesting continuing support this year for funding a General Surgeon to be assigned full time for a three-month rotation to one of the District Hospitals in Sorsogon. As you already know, the Pilot Program conducted at the Gubat District Hospital was a success. I would like to recommend that we approve this request.

As previously reported, the program has not been implemented since completion of the pilot project due to the following problems.

1. Unable to recruit graduates of Private Institutions Residency program in General Surgery because the grant budgeted for the General surgeon in our program is not competitive.
2. Graduates of Public Hospitals are mandated to provide a year’s deployment in a Government hospital and signs a contract preventing them from receiving any outside source of income apart from the salary they receive while deployed to a mutually agreed upon Institution.

To improve the chance of continuing the Rural Surgery Outreach project, I would like to make the following recommendations. Please note that the total amount of funding a three-month program rotation will remain as previously approved by the SPSA governing board.

1. Graduates of Residency Program from private Institutions. Note: The recommended salary change will allow us to have a better chance of recruiting a General Surgeon for the program.

Budget: Monthly

1. G.S. Salary               – $ 2,000.00 (USD)
2. Hospital supplies –    $ 500.00 (USD)

Total                            – $ 2,500.00 (USD)

• DOH Resident Deployment program
• DOH develop a separate program incorporating two three months rotation to two separate venues named by the SPSA-PCS Sure Commission Rural Surgery Outreach program to the 12-month DOH mandatory deployment program. The designated surgeon will not receive any numeration for this service. Upon completion of this rotation, the successful candidate will receive a Continuing Medical Education Traveling Fellow grant of $ 5,00.00 USD from the SPSA-PCS Sure Commission Rural Surgery Outreach Program to attend the Annual Convention of the Asian Surgical Society or the American College of Surgeons.

Note: This arrangement will circumvent the restrictions of the DOH deployment program on the terms of monetary compensation.

• Funding support for Hospital supplies, Nursing honorarium and Administrative Cost will remain the same.

I recommend that the Society support these two programs simultaneously for at least the next two years.

I would like to further request everyone to help convince leaders of US based Medical Alumni Associations to support the program as co-sponsors. This program will have a lasting impact in providing surgical care to a large segment of the population living in underserved communities in the Philippines and will serve as a legacy of SPSA.

With this report, I request Dr. Bayani Ignacio, Chairman, COPP to include this report to the agenda for our next COPP meeting. Respectfully submitted,

Hernan

Hernan M. Reyes, MD, FACS

Chair, SPSA Oversight Committee, Rural Surgery Outreach Program

August 24, 2024