Medical ‘brain drain’ comes back to haunt virus-stricken Philippines

WELLA, a 20-year-old fresh nursing graduate, chose to stay and work at a private hospital in Manila that’s caring for several of the more than

2,000 coronavirus-stricken patients in the country.

“The government doesn’t care about its overworked and underpaid health workers,” she said in a chat message. “Hopefully my experience would prepare me for a better-paying job overseas once this health crisis is over.”

The Philippines has had to deal with the lack of test kits for patients and personal protective gear for workers on the frontline of battling a novel coronavirus that has sickened more than 1,500 and killed at least 78 people, mostly on the main island of Luzon.

Soon, it will have to face the reality of years of brain drain that led to the exodus of Filipino doctors and nurses to first-world countries including the US and UK.

“China is the second-richest country, so they have enough capacity not just in terms of money, food and equipment,” Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto M. Pernia told radio DZMM last month. “They also have a number of scientists and health workers, which we lack.”

Local nurses earn a measly P15,000 to P20,000 a month — lower than what a starting call center agent gets, and much lower than the P120,000 salary of a Filipino nurse in the UK, Wella said.

The Philippines had about 41 physicians, nurses and midwives for every 10,000 Fiipinos in 2015, slightly lower than the threshold recommended by the International Labor Organization and World Health Organization, according to the Philippine Institute for Development Studies.