More doctors, nurses deployed to LGUs to boost vaccine rollout

MANILA – San Miguel Corporation (SMC) has started deploying its own doctors and nurses on “loan” to local government units (LGUs) to help implement the government’s vaccination program, while it waits to start its own nationwide vaccination for some 70,000 employees in June.

“This is another way we can support (the) government’s vaccination efforts –by sharing our resources, in this case, our employee medical professionals. Right now, we are still finalizing our plans for the rollout of our vaccination program, and still waiting for the arrival of our vaccines. In the meantime, our doctors and nurses have committed to help out short-staffed LGUs and provide their services to them for free,” SMC president Ramon S. Ang said in a statement Wednesday.

Ang said the company hopes it will be a “big help” to the government’s vaccination efforts for the time being.

“We will help in any way we can because vaccination is really the best way we can protect ourselves and our loved ones, and honestly, our best chance to end this pandemic,” he said.

Ang said they deployed last week two doctors and 17 nurses to vaccination sites in Mandaluyong City, and are looking to send more to other LGUs in the coming weeks.

Earlier, the company vowed to boost the government’s vaccination effort by committing to vaccinate for free an estimated 70,000 nationwide, consisting of its own employees and employees of its third-party providers.

As part of its plans, it is currently looking to hire up to 300 medical workers to support its vaccination effort.

Access to vaccines is also being extended to employees’ families and referred individuals to further widen SMC’s overall reach.

Ang announced the company is spending up to PHP1 billion to mount its vaccination program.

“Our goal is to make a meaningful impact on achieving herd immunity by taking care of our own people. By providing our employees free vaccines, they no longer need to take from the government’s supply, which means more vaccines can be allotted for others,” he said.

Ang said the more people are vaccinated, the quicker the country can recover from the pandemic.

“For our part, we will continue to share our resources whenever and wherever they are needed. We need to help each other, and help our government, so we can protect more people, get to a better, safer new normal, and rebuild our economy,” he added.