Reynaldo Peguero writes today in the Listin Diario that the average number of patients seen each year by the almost 9,000 public hospital doctors on the Ministry of Public Health payroll is 5.5 million, a very low turnover of 2.5 patients per doctor per day. There are doctors who work much harder than the average, and others who do even less work.
The government has said there is no money in the budget to increase doctors’ wages beyond the 30% raise budgeted for 2005. The government argues that there has been a reduction in inflation, the price of fuel and the exchange rate that has led to a real increase in purchasing power, which is tantamount to a wage increase. It also insists that any further increases in pay would have to come as the result of concrete productivity and efficiency indicators in hospitals and health centers. Peguero says that if the Dominican Medical College (CMD) would accept this principle, a joint plan could be carried out with the Ministry of Health, and in coordination with the Pan American Health Organization. He says the health ministry could develop a National System of Incentives and Material Motivations that is coherent with several government programs.
“We believe that only by going down the productivity route, fulfillment and making the service at public hospitals more humane can the health ministry and the Executive Branch move to a permanent solution of the continuing problem of the public hospital doctors’ wages and the continuous work stoppages that affect social stability and violate our laws,” he writes.