PRESIDENT Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. has vowed to address the challenges being faced by the health sector especially in keeping health practitioners from leaving the country for better employment opportunities.
Marcos discussed with the Private Sector Advisory Council (PSAC) the challenges confronting the Philippine health sector, particularly the exodus of nurses and other health professionals in a meeting at the Malacañang on Thursday, August 11, 2022.
He expressed support for the “ladderized” program that provides scholarships to healthcare workers.
“I like the ladderized idea for the nurses because that’s really becoming a problem -- the brain drain that we are suffering,” Marcos said during the meeting.
“They are so good everybody wants them, and they are willing to pay for it, and we are not, or we’re not able. So we have to come up with some strategies for that,” he added.
Department of Health (DOH) Officer-in-Charge Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said the ladderized program is already being carried out by the University of the Philippines-Manila and several local government units (LGUs).
Under the program, UP Manila offers a two-year scholarship for midwives who, upon course completion, come back to the community to serve.
Once they gain experience, they go back to UP Manila, where they get to study nursing for another two years.
“So this ladderized program, there is this counterpart with local government. So we now have a couple of local governments that we have piloted this with. But of course, this would be -- eventually para makapag-produce tayo nang madami,” Vergeire said.
They also discussed tapping the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (Tesda), which offers a six-month nursing aide course and produces graduates who could be deployed in hospitals after a few months.
Paolo Maximo Borromeo, PSAC Healthcare lead, said hospitals will train them further, which will improve the ratio of beds that nurses are able to do.
Borromeo also suggested the institutionalization of nursing aides and nurse practitioners in a nursing act being discussed in Congress.
He said incorporating provisions such as improved salaries and benefits for nurses will be a big help.
The PSAC said salaries and benefits provision for nurses should also be reviewed, noting that there should be a policy mandating equal pay for health workers both in the private and public hospitals.
Currently, nurses in government hospitals get higher pay than those in the private sector.
Based on the data from the DOH, there are 617,000 licensed nurses in the country in which 28 percent or 172,000 were working in both public and private health facilities, 51 percent or 316,000 were abroad while the 21 percent are not practicing their profession. (SunStar Philippines)