MANILA: Ronald Ignacio became a nurse at the height of the Philippines' nursing boom in 2008, when there were not enough jobs in the health system for the many thousands of newly qualified nurses. At first, he struggled to find a job, so instead worked on a farm for two years. Ignacio eventually landed a j
MANILA: Ronald Ignacio became a nurse at the height of the Philippines' nursing boom in 2008, when there were not enough jobs in the health system for the many thousands of newly qualified nurses.
"Expert nurses – the lifeblood of hospitals – have accepted job offers abroad because their salaries here are no longer commensurate with their work," Ignacio, an emergency care nurse, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. "You studied for four years to become a nurse and worked hard to obtain your licence only to get paid a salary that could no longer be called a living wage. Where's justice in that?" Ignacio asked.Foreign nurses drawn to Singapore’s location and ease of application, but more needed to retain themSince the 1950s, money sent home by nurses abroad has been a big earner for the Philippines economy.
Jocelyn Andamo, secretary-general of Filipino Nurses United, said that recruitment practices of importing countries had become more creative after the pandemic. "A lot of countries that the UK has looked to recruit from already have worse shortages, and that means that when they lose nurses, it really can have a detrimental impact on the ability of those countries to provide healthcare to their own people," said Catton.
"Is the government really monitoring these bilateral agreements? Perhaps we need to enhance them with greater transparency and cooperation with Filipino nurses' unions and migrant groups to ensure that their concerns are being addressed," she said.NURSES DEMAND MORE PAY TO STAY
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