FILE PHOTO: Healthcare workers talk as they conduct targeted mass testing among residents at Sampaloc district in Manila on May 8, 2020. INQUIRER FILES
MANILA, Philippines — President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. described the Philippines as a victim of its own success amid the shortage of healthcare workers, many of whom went abroad in search for better paying jobs.
Marcos said this in a meeting with Business Executives for National Security (BENS) when asked about business opportunities in the Philippine healthcare system.
“Unfortunately, in terms of healthcare workers, we have become victims of our own success in that the Filipinos did really well during the pandemic. And so every leader I meet says ‘can we have more Filipino med techs, doctors, and nurses?’ So we’re having a shortage here,” Marcos said.
Marcos, however, said that the Department of Health has been working to alleviate this problem.
“One of the things our Department of Health has come up with is that we are coming to an arrangement with countries who will accept Filipino healthcare workers to at the same time train the equivalent number of healthcare workers that will stay in the Philippines,” he said.
The administration is also eyeing accelerating board examinations to generate more healthcare workers.
“We are trying to accelerate the board examinations of nurses so we can actually put out more. So that’s the adjustment that we are trying to make. So it’s not only in the facilities, it’s also in the training. We are very proud of them but we wish they’d stay home,” said Marcos.
Healthcare workers are notoriously underpaid in the Philippines, with many seeking greener pastures abroad.
READ: Filipino nurses ‘best’ in the world but decent pay, work elusive in PH
A better environment for investments
Marcos told the BENS that the Philippines had amended laws to make investment more attractive in the Philippines.
“We are trying to create an environment that will be friendly to start-ups because we know that start-ups have higher rate of failure than other traditional businesses. So we need to be able to adjust to that new way of doing things,” he said.
Other areas of investments discussed by Marcos with BENS included the country’s digital infrastructure and energy.
“We need to catch up in terms of training, in terms of getting involved in the new technologies that we are seeing for many, many reasons: for the digitalization, for the climate change, for the cybersecurity,” said the President during the meeting.
BENS members included in the meeting was GardaWorld Federal Services President Pete Dordal, SPG International President and CEO Steve Darnell and more. United States Ambassador to the Philippines MaryKay Carlson was also in the meeting, said the Palace.
RELATED STORIES:
Nurses’ exodus: Choice obvious between better future abroad, shabby treatment at home
DOH urges gov’t to stop exodus of PH health workers