There is a group of forgotten and neglected health frontliners to whom the nation owes so much—the social workers in public clinics and hospitals.

The best belated thank you card that we can give them is to make their minimum pay equal to nurses, P32,035 a month, that of Salary Grade 15 in the government pay scale.

Social workers have the biggest number of clients in a hospital. Anyone who lacks the money, which means most of those who seek treatment nowadays, automatically becomes their “patient”.

This is because all those who are hospitalized share one comorbidity: poverty. It is fatal. This is a land where every family is one major illness away from bankruptcy.

Our social workers help them and their families find relief, by becoming their advocates for discounts and free treatments. They refer them to agencies which can extend financial help.

Like medical professionals, social workers prepare a patient chart but of a different kind, one which often shows the hard life of the sick and their families.

But their job goes beyond profiling. They recommend psychosocial care, lodging for the caregivers, fare money for the stranded. They’ve been doing this ages before this pandemic struck.

Sila ang unang puntahan ng mga kamag-anak ng naospital. Hindi lang tambak ng papeles ang kanilang mesa, puno din ng luha.