WITH THE country grappling to curb the spread of COVID-19, the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration temporarily barred the deployment of nurses and 12 other categories of allied medical professionals/technicians. But here’s one possible scenario once the pandemic is suppressed: wealthy nations around the world will rush to expand the capacities of their public health systems and step up their recruitment of Philippine-educated healthcare professionals.
It is doubtful if our government would be able to stop most especially nurses from seeking greener pastures as soon as the public health emergency is over. The right to travel is protected by the Constitution, and all Filipino professionals are entitled to take their skills to wherever they may find the greatest reward.
The increased demand for Filipino healthcare professionals will likely come not only from the US but also from affluent European nations whose health systems have been pushed to their limits. They will surely be under extreme pressure to plug the gaps in their hospitals and nursing homes.
With our country facing the prospect of losing its healthcare workers – and we’re not just talking about nurses but also doctors, medical technologists, radiologists, etc. – what should the government be doing?
The Philippines is bound to face a severe shortage of medical practitioners in the years ahead unless government sets a considerably higher starting pay for them. In the case of nurses in both public and private hospitals, there is a proposal for Congress to double to P60,000 their entry-level pay – more or less the same starting pay being offered by Saudi Arabia to Filipino nurses, without counting fringe benefits – to encourage new practitioners to stay and discourage at least some of them from leaving. If we can’t stop our healthcare professionals from going to North America or Europe, perhaps we can dissuade at least those aspiring to work in the Middle East.
Here’s another worrying matter: our production of new nurses has slowed. Based on figures from the Professional Regulation Commission, they issued only 31,580 new nursing licenses between 2017 and 2019, or an average of just 10,526 every year. If just half of the 10,526 new licensees leave the country every year, we won’t even have enough new nurses to replace those who are retiring in the years ahead.
A grim healthcare scenario.
