Nurses. (INQUIRER FILE PHOTO)
MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Health (DOH) on Saturday called on the government to implement measures to stop healthcare professionals from leaving the country for work abroad.
“Nananawagan tayo, this should be a whole-of-government approach,” DOH spokesperson and Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said when asked about the issue. “Kailangan ma-address ng buong gobyerno ang ating brain drain na tinatawag […] because we need our healthcare workers to stay here in the country para tulungan ang ating healthcare system.”
(We are urging the government to act on this since it should be a whole-of-government approach. The so-called brain drain in the country needs to be addressed by the government, because we need our healthcare workers to stay here in the country to help our healthcare system.)
She noted that the DOH is also crafting its own measures to resolve the issue.
“We are incentivizing our nurses. Kaya nga po mayroon tayong healthcare benefits and allowances na ibinibigay para mas maging interesado sila to work here in our country,” said Vergeire.
(We are incentivizing our nurses. We’re giving them healthcare benefits and allowances, so they’ll be more interested in working in our country.)
“We are trying to look at the whole inventory of our healthcare workers, including nurses, sa buong bansa. At tinitingnan natin kung paano tayo makakapag-produce purposively. Para alam natin na mayroon tayong mapro-produce in the coming years, so we’ll be able to address this gap in our healthcare workers,” Vergeire added.
(We’re also looking at the whole inventory of our healthcare workers in the country, including the nurses. And we’re currently figuring out how we can purposively produce more of them, so we’re assured that we can address this gap in our healthcare workers for the coming years.)
The Philippine General Hospital earlier warned about an exodus of healthcare professionals in the country, especially as international borders reopen for overseas workers.
To brace for this, the state-owned hospital has been actively recruiting and training nurses with even little to no experience.
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