Private hospitals lack half of nursing staff too, exodus unchecked
The Private Hospitals Association of the Philippines Inc. (PHAPI) on Tuesday said private hospitals in the country lack 50 percent of their nursing staff.
In an interview over radio dzBB, PHAPI president Dr. Jose Rene de Grano said that even before, private hospitals lacked at least 40 percent of their nursing staff.
“Perhaps, there was another 10 percent for the past two years,” he said.
He also said it’s likely that half of what needed have already left, having resigned and opted for better-paying jobs elsewhere.
He said the exodus of nurses will limit the service private hospitals can provide.
For example Grano said, some wards in private hospitals had to be closed.
He said a nurse in a private hospital usually can handle eight to 12 patients in wards.
“Twelve is the maximum in what we call toxic wards,” he said.
In ICU or special areas, he said, the ratio is 1:1 or 1:2.
“We have the facilities, especially in private hospitals. Our only limitation, and this already happened during the pandemic, is our number of nurses,” he said.
Even public hospitals are facing a shortage of nurses.
Health Secretary Ted Herbosa noted there are 4,500 vacancies in more than 70 government hospitals nationwide.
Herbosa announced on Monday that he plans to establish a National Nursing Advisory Council that will focus on addressing the concerns of Filipino nurses.
The plan drew support from the chairperson of the House committee on civil service and professional regulation, Bohol Rep. Kristine Tutor.
The chairman of the House of Representatives’ committee on labor and employment called for a dialogue among stakeholders to address the shortage of nurses in government hospitals.
“We should have a dialogue first, then craft a workable strategy to address the shortage, with the view towards implementing a long-term solution instead of temporary measures,” Rizal Rep. Fidel Nograles said.
Nograles issued the statement after Herbosa drew flak for a proposal to tap unlicensed nurses to fill vacancies in public hospitals.
The Professional Regulation Commission on Thursday said that nursing graduates who failed the board exam cannot be granted temporary or special licenses and work in government hospitals.
Nograles said the furor over the issue could have been minimized had there been “a meaningful consultation with stakeholders.”
The lawmaker said government agencies including the Department of Health, Department of Labor and Employment, the Budget department, and local government units, along with other stakeholders of the health sector, should immediately conduct a formal dialogue on how to address the issue.
“We should discuss the issues such as nurse to patient ratio, working hours, salary, among others,” he said. “What is stopping us from hiring more nurses? Let’s identify these barriers and closely collaborate to find a solution that we can implement.”
The DOH earlier said it will hire nursing assistants to help address the nurse shortage in government hospitals, but Herbosa said his plan to employ nursing graduates who failed the board exam would not be shelved.
The World Health Organization recommends a ratio of 27 nurses per 10,000 population. In the Philippines, there are only 16 nurses per 10,000.
The country would need an additional 127,000 nurses to meet the WHO target, the Health department said.
Entry-level nurses in private hospitals take home between P15,000 ($271) and P25,000 ($452) a month, about the same as new teachers, but less than junior police officers.
But it is a far cry from nurses’ average monthly salary of $3,000 in the US and 2,000 pounds ($2,530) in the UK.
Since the 1950s, money sent home by nurses abroad has been a big earner for the Philippines economy. At the end of 2021, around a third of the more than 900,000 registered nurses in the Philippines were working abroad, the group Filipino Nurses United said.
Remittances from nurses bring in around $8 billion to the economy every year, about 25 percent of all remittances, which together account for some 9 percent of gross domestic product.
At the end of 2022, some 170,000 nurses were working in private and public health facilities in the country, while more than 290,000 licensed nurses had left for other careers, the Health department said.