Hospital group seeks program for nursing schools to address healthcare worker shortage

The Philippine Hospital Association (PHA) on Wednesday presented suggestions to increase the number of healthcare workers in the country, including a program for nursing schools.

During the Senate committee on economic affairs hearing on the status of industries hardly-hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, PHA president Dr. Jaime Almora lamented that majority of the hospitals only have 30% to 50% of their usual nursing manpower.

“A program to increase the number of nursing schools and student enrollees in nursing colleges is hereby requested to assure supply of nurses in the coming years,” Almora told the Senate panel.

He also noted the delay in the graduation of  student nurses who are supposed to graduate in 2022 as there are limitations in holding physical classes amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Beyond that, we expect that more and more nurses will still be migrating [to other countries] and the lack of manpower of nurses will go on way beyond 2023. So a program should be set now so that we have a supply of nurses in the coming years,” he said.

He recalled the demand for nurses in the United States in the 1990s, which resulted in the establishment of nursing schools in the Philippines.

These nursing schools eventually closed due to its poor performance and production of nursing graduates who were not able to pass the licensure exam.

“The demise of these schools was also hastened by the dwindling job opportunity abroad,” he added.

Moreover, Almora appealed to the government agencies to lend the licensed nurses who were not doing medical-related jobs to the hospitals “before the last defenses of this war or the hospitals will be totally overrun.”

In his presentation, Almora said there are 9,000 nurses who joined the PNP but performing jobs that are not medical-related.

“The steep increase in the salaries of uniformed services starting in 2018 created an exodus of nurses from the hospitals to the uniformed services as much as 9,000 new policemen are now in the PNP,” he said.

He recalled that the “exodus” of nurses was supposed to be addressed by a bill which raises their salaries to P26,000 for entry level positions. However, this was vetoed by former President Benigno Aquino III due to lack of funding.

Almora also warned of the aggressive recruitment being employed by foreign countries to get Filipino nurses.

He said this is one of the major reasons why the Philippines is facing a healthcare manpower crisis.

In April, the Department of Health (DOH) said that the government had enough funds to augment the health workforce amid a new surge in COVID-19 cases, but lamented that only a few health workers were “heeding the call.”

So far, over 7,000 have been hired since the DOH launched its emergency hiring program for health workers at the start of the pandemic last year.

In March, the PHA has already said that hospitals are already "overwhelmed and overran" in light of the recent surge in COVID-19 cases mainly due to their depleted and overworked manpower.—AOL, GMA News