An Act Providing Medical Scholarships To Qualified Students In All Municipalities Establishing For This Purpose The One Town: One Doctor Scholarship Program, Appropriating Funds Therefor And For Other Purposes

• This bill seeks to achieve the presence of at least one (1) doctor per town to be able to provide dependable healthcare services to all Filipinos especially those living in rural areas, which will eventually help strengthen the public health care system of the country.
• The Department of Health (DOH) shall be mandated to initiate and implement this program which shall be open to all qualified natural-born citizens who are not more than 25 years of age and belonging to the top 30% of their graduating class but financially incapable to pursue their medical studies.
• Students who are qualified under this program must strictly fulfill the conditions provided under this bill with respect to passing the admission examinations in the medical schools they choose to enroll in and finish the course without unnecessary delay.
• Upon passing the medical board examination, the medical scholar will be required to serve for at least four (4) years in a general or regional medical center and shall accordingly be given the appropriate rank and salary. They shall also be deployed in their respective hometowns to achieve the objective of this proposal.
• The DOH shall ensure that each municipality in the country shall have one medical scholar for every cycle of the program to provide a continuous deployment of one doctor in every town. The idea behind this measure is for every municipality to supply one scholar who shall be supported by the state to become a doctor in exchange of serving in one’s hometown for a limited period. This is a program that aims to tap and nurture homegrown talents in serving the health needs of a community. The town doctor will come from the community, and tuition repayment will be in the form of community service.

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