The availability of competent Human Resources for Health (HRH) is vital to the delivery of health services and towards the attainment of universal health care. As a critical component of health systems, there is a need for comprehensive, accurate, and up-to-date data on HRH for the development of evidence-informed policies and plans. In this regard, the World Health Organization has promoted the adoption of the National Health Workforce Accounts as an overarching system to improve the availability, quality, and use of data on the health workforce, covering the entire health labor market dynamics from health workforce production to inflows and outflows in the health system. This includes data on HRH quantity and distribution, which are priority indicators for health workforce planning. However, these data are currently collected through fragmented information systems that have limited coverage and interoperability. They are being processed manually and may not accurately nor completely reflect the HRH situation in the country.

One of the identified key strategies to resolve issues on HRH data is the creation of a health workforce registry that will contribute to the National Health Workforce Accounts. Thus, pursuant to Section 25.c of Republic Act No. 11223 also known as the “Universal Health Care (UHC) Act”, the DOH and the PRC, in coordination with duly registered medical and allied health professional societies, shall set up a registry of medical and allied health professionals, indicating, among others, their current number of practitioners and location of practice. This policy, as aligned with data privacy and cybercrime laws, shall therefore provide guidelines on the establishment, utilization, and maintenance of the National Health Workforce Registry (NHWR) and the institutionalization of its routine data collection.