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Nursing the healthcare system

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Filipino nurses are reportedly taking advantage of the reopening of economies abroad and relaxed border restrictions to seek employment overseas, and the wave of resignations comes at a bad time as the country anticipates another COVID-19 surge.

Faced with low wages and burnout due to the pandemic, it is not surprising for nurses in the Philippines to seek better opportunities abroad.

“They are overworked, they’re overburdened but less appreciated and of course, they seem undervalued. And there’s a discrepancy between the payments of private hospitals and the public hospitals,” Dr. Tony Leachon, former adviser to the country’s pandemic task force said in a recent interview.

Leachon earlier sounded the alarm that nurses in private hospitals are “resigning in droves.” He said nurses from private hospitals would transfer and work for government hospitals instead or they end up in other industries before taking mandatory exams for the country they intend to migrate to.

Nurses in most private hospitals are paid the minimum wage or around P537 daily in Metro Manila, or only around P12,000 monthly, and even less in the provinces.

In government hospitals, nurses can earn about P35,097 monthly. But not all are receiving that salary and in the provinces, such nurses are only given 65% of what they are supposed to earn. Furthermore, around 50% of the country’s nurses in government institutions are contractual workers, which mean they are not entitled to benefits such as vacation and sick leaves.

The problem of Filipino nurses opting to work abroad is not new. It is a chronic problem that has been emphasized by the COVID pandemic, and based on the continuing exodus, it has not yet been addressed up to now.

This is an issue that the new administration’s Health Secretary must address, but for that to happen, one that is competent and cognizant of the problems hounding the health sector must first be selected by President-elect Ferdinand Marcos Jr.

Filipino nurses who are seriously considering working abroad and our health care system that could be put under even more stress if the exodus of healthcare workers continues can only hope that the delay in choosing a Health Secretary is not a bad omen for the country that is still recovering from the drastic effects of the pandemic and a lackluster response courtesy of mediocre leadership at the Department of Health.*

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March 2024
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