Couple turns family tragedy into business opportunity

It was a tragedy in their families that made couple Benjo and Lalie Gothong put up a home health care business that can provide nurses to families, who need nursing care in the comforts of their homes.

They opened their business called We Care Home Health Care on Monday in Mandaue City.

Lalie Gothong said the company already had a pool of 200 nurses ready to be deployed to any point in Metro Cebu.

“We are looking forward to hiring 1,200 nurses more,” Lalie said.

The couple’s experience of having to care for both their fathers, who were both afflicted with cancer and later died  because of the illness, was one of the reasons they set up the business.

“Both of our fathers died of cancer. Her dad died of prostate cancer while my dad died of lung cancer. Both of us have experienced the importance and the need to have on-call nurses to attend to our parents.” Benjo Gothong told CDN.

The couple also saw the increasing demand for on-call nurses.

“A lot of people’s lifestyle have already improved and the demand for home health care has dramatically increased. We want to be there and meet that demand,” Lalie said.

Grace Subida, a nurse and the firm’s vice president for operations, said the work at the company would be helpful to the local nurses, who were usually fresh graduates and were working outside their fields.

“This is also our way of giving back to the community by giving nurses the jobs that they are really trained for. About 60 percent of the population of nurses in Cebu are not working as nurses. Some of them are earning experiences by serving at hospitals. Some of them are even paying for the experience instead of getting paid for it,” Subida said.

“The baby boomers in other countries are now getting old and with their retirement money they come to our country to spend their remaining years here. They all need nurses and we are trying to meet that demand as early as now.”

With medical tourism trend, “We Care Home Health Care” is also coordinating with the Philippine Retirement Authority to secure its  accreditations.

“Retirees from abroad are also a very promising market for this kind of business.” she said.

The company also trains the nurses to keep them sharp and internationally competent.

“We wanted to be a hub for the continuous learning of the nurses. We are partnering with an Australian Training Agency called Wellness and Lifestyles Australia to increase their knowledge,” she said.