Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, June 30) — A lawmaker on Friday suggested ways on how the government can address the shortage of nurses in the country.
“We have to establish a minimum wage rate, most especially for the private nurses. So around ₱700 to ₱1,000 per day, net,” House civil and professional regulation panel chairperson Kristine Tutor told CNN Philippines’ The Source.
She said it’s important to establish this given the huge gap between the salary of private and public nurses. She noted that a nurse under the Department of Health earns at least ₱36,000 monthly, more than double the salary a private nurse receives which ranges from ₱12,000 to ₱15,000.
The government should prioritize bridging this gap, otherwise, it should just increase the deployment of these medical professionals abroad where they are given better compensation, Tutor said.
“If we cannot bridge the gap of the minimum wage rate between the public and private hospitals, hindi talaga natin ma-stop yung overseas exodus ng mga nurses natin kasi mas better situated sila doon kaysa sa atin (we really can’t stop the exodus of our nurses because they are better situated there than here) because of the wage rate,” she pointed out.
Another solution she recommended is amending the nursing law to allow the Professional Regulation Commission to issue licenses to other types of nurses, like the nurse practitioners, nurse assistants, and nurse aids.
The government can also hire more contractual and job order medical professionals to reduce the workload of the nurses, she added.
While the Philippines is a major deployer of nurses abroad, it is left to deal with the problem of shortage.
Health Secretary Ted Herbosa has suggested hiring board eligible nursing graduates to fill the 4,500 vacancies in government hospitals.
Tutor said instead of implementing this, the government should prioritize hiring the thousands of licensed nurses who are still in the country.
