Group moves to curb manpower drain

If the government will not act to stop the widespread migration of the country's healthcare professionals, the industry will see a severe human resource shortage in the next three to five years.

This is the assessment made by the Cebu Health and Wellness Council (CHWC) based on the current situation of the industry, not only in Cebu but across the whole country.

CHWC vice chairperson Clarissa Pe reported that widespread migration of healthcare professionals to other countries is crippling the Philippines to capitalize on the multi-billion-dollar medical tourism market.

According to Pe, CHWC, which members include healthcare and wellness institutions like hospitals, specially clinics, spa, dental services, beauty centers, among others, is now in the forefront of rescuing the country from this foreseen manpower dryup.

One of their advocacies, she said, is to encourage healthcare institutions to give the right paycheck to healthcare professionals, especially those whose professions are indemand in other countries like nurses, medical technologists, massage therapists, physical therapists, and care givers, among others.

Aside from raising the salaries of healthcare professionals here, Pe said stakeholders are also encouraged to invest on continuing education, including learning of foreign languages.

If medical tourism will be properly promoted by the Philippines, instead of Filipinos migrating to other countries to take care of foreigners, these foreigners will be forced to come here to seek medical and healthcare attention.

The government also is urged to seriously intervene in this concern by providing friendly policies, incentives and other programs that will keep these professionals to work in their homecountry.

The Philippines is the largest exporter of nurses, supplying 25 percent of the world’s demand (2010) and the second largest exporter of doctors, next only to India, which is a much larger country.

According to Coalition for Primary Care, an aggrupation of different health groups, demand for healthcare is rising because of a growing population, increasing PhilHealth coverage, and increasing services offered by PhilHealth.

Supply, on the other hand, already at a critical low is being threatened further by maldistribution and migration.

The Coalition emphasized low compensation, poor working environments, and other factors drive Filipino healthcare workers away.