Gov’t urged to review deployment ban on health workers

MANILA, Philippines — A leader of a recruitment firm called on the government to review its ban on overseas deployment of healthcare workers, noting that over 500,000 medical professionals in the country are not practicing their professions.

Lito Soriano, president of the LBS Recruitment Solutions Corporation, on Sunday asked the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Disease, Commission on Higher Education, Professional Regulation Commission, Department of Health, Philippine Statistics Authority, and the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration to conduct a study on the implications of the deployment ban on healthcare workers.

Soriano made this call after Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said Thursday that healthcare workers who have secured overseas employment contacts and travel documents before March 8 can leave the country to work abroad but reiterated that the deployment ban will remain in place.

According to Soriano, this rule effectively stops the deployment of new hires in the healthcare industry, including nurses previously working abroad and fresh graduates of the nursing profession, as well as physical therapists, med technologists, and other allied healthcare professionals, to other countries that offer higher pay and benefits.

Citing a 2017 data from the Department of Health, the recruitment firm leader noted that there are over 750,000 licensed medical professionals in the country, including dentists, med technologists, pharmacists, physicians, and midwives.

Of this number, only 204,437 are active in the health sector, which means 543,495 are not practicing their professions, according to Soriano.

“Over 500,000 nurses have passed the licensure exams since the year 2000-2019 but only an estimated less than 200,000 are working as nurses in private and government hospitals,” he also said.

Citing data from the POEA covering the last 19 years, Soriano also noted that only about 150,000 nurses have left for abroad with an annual average of 12,000 since the year 2000.

He believes that the deployment of health professionals will not affect the healthcare industry since there are still over 240,000 nurses who are not active in the profession.

“Overseas job opportunities for nurses has been the primary driver of inspiration for our HS graduate to take nursing profession, the on and off ban will send a wrong signal to our youth that in the coming years, they will avoid Nursing and this will impact the health care system of the country,” he also said.

The reason for this is very obvious, according to Soriano. He noted that nurses have been underpaid for the past 15 years, with some earning less than P10,000 in private hospitals and 15,000 in government hospitals. Benefits are likewise few.

However, he pointed out that recent actions of the government to raise the salaries of nurses to P 32,000 per month will not be realized until the new fiscal year of 2021 takes effect.

Soriano likewise called for an end of the deployment ban for the new hires as this will only confuse overseas clients who depend on Filipino nurses who are hardworking and highly recognized for their skills.

He said banning the deployment of nurses is “totally wrong as this violates the right to travel and curtailment of their freedom to seek a better future for their families.”

“If the government cannot provide better working conditions for nurses at least allow them to seek their opportunities for a greener future for their families,” he said.

JE