Philippine nurses’ groups at the January 4 Pandesal Forum of 83-year-old Kamuning Bakery Cafe appealed for prompt, correct pay & risk benefits, they also asked for an end to contractualization in gov’t. and private hospitals. They expressed support for government’s Alert Level 3 and proposed lockdown for unvaccinated people. They appealed for national unity and vigilance for the Philippines to overcome the new pandemic surge… The nurses’ leaders who spoke at the Pandesal Forum were Aksyon Demokratiko senatorial candidate & registered nurse Dr. Carl Balita; Association of Nursing Service Administrators of the Phil. President Emeritus Dr. Maria Linda Buhat; Philippine Nurses Association President Melbert Reyes
Dr. Carl Balita lamented the Philippines lacks 92,000 physicians & 44,000 nurses, also lacks 19,000 medical technologists, 14,000 pharmacists & 17,000 radiologic technicians & radiologic technologists because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
On the Metro Manila Film Festival, former producer of 2 movies Dr. Carl Balita said Filipinos still continue to watch Filipino films but have changed habits due to pandemic, rise of online entertainment and said Filipino filmmakers can still thrive and showcase talents by adapting and adjusting. He said MMFF low box office revenues are similar to lower retail sales of other businesses due to pandemic, but expressed hope for a better future for the Philippine movie industry. One of the movies he produced before was about the life of Filipino nurses.
Nurses groups leaders appealed for prompt and correct pay and risk benefits, also an end to contractualization for nurses in gov’t. and private hospitals at the Jan. 4 Pandesal Forum of 83-year-old Kamuning Bakery Cafe in Quezon City. They also expressed full support for the government’s Alert Level 3 and the proposed lockdown for unvaccinated people, saying that this restriction for unvaccinated is actually to protect them. Licensed nurse Dr. Carl Balita said he plans to file an omnibus Senate bill to uplift benefits of all Philippine health workers, from doctors, nurses to other health personnel to lessen the exodus of health workers abroad and to improve medical care in the country.
This is the media statement of health professionals advocate & Aksyon Demokratiko senatorial candidate Dr. Carl Balita
HEALTH PROFESSIONALS LACKING, BLEEDING, LEAVING
The world will be short of 5.6 million nurses by 2030, based on the WHO’s State of World Nursing Report in 2020. The Filipino nurses are the best for the Filipinos and the choice of the world, as envisioned in the Philippine Nursing Roadmap. The Filipino nurses are the best for the Filipinos but they are leaving to respond to the irresistible offers of foreign countries which proves that Filipino nurses as the choice of the world. The WHO recommends that countries need to invest in massive acceleration of nursing education, create at least 6 million new nursing jobs by 2030 and strengthen nurse leadership. These are the information provided by Aksyon Demokratiko Senatorial Candidate, Dr Carl Balita, the first registered nurse-midwife to run in Senate history. He is also a licensed teacher and Doctor of Humanities and Doctor of Education. Dr Balita has been in the forefront of advocacies for the advancement of nurses, health workers and health care in general. As a former faculty and dean of nursing, his review center has bridged the licensure of hundreds of thousands of Filipino nurses. Dr Balita quotes DOH For the past 20 years, Dr Balita presents that the Professional Regulation Commission has registered 606,428 nurses and 55,783 physicians. “There was an average of 30,000 nurses registered a year for the past 20 years, and there is no reason for the country to have scarcity of nurses, if only we give our Filipino nurses reasons to stay in the country,” says Dr Balita. With the threat of the Omicron variant surge, the full implementation of the Universal Health Care Law, and the availability of the local resources due to the Mandanas-Garcia Ruling, the welfare of health professionals should be and may be addressed properly, before it is too late. The Problems “Nurses are not regarded well in the Philippines,” asserts Dr Balita. He cites that the Salary Grade 15, which was provided by RA 9173 in “During the pandemic, the nurses were deployed as ‘casual, job orders’ under the Nurse Deployment Program, which gave the ‘carrot’ of high salary but lacks plantilla positions for job security and career progression,” cites Dr Balita. “Their services are under contractualization scheme which does not provide for security of tenure, that we prohibit in private agencies but tolerate in government,” asserts Dr Balita. “If not for the Omicron surge looming, many nurses faced non-renewal of their contracts,” according to him, citing that some have given up on their regular jobs in private hospitals due to lower salary offers. As Dr Balita commends the Build-Build-Build program that built health facilities and infrastructures, he notes that the human resource through permanent job positions need improvement to complete the seriousness of the government, national and local, in prioritizing health specially amid the pandemic. There was also the imposition of the deployment ban after the cap of 6,500 deployments in 2021. As the ban is increased to 7,000 deployments in 2022, Dr Balita still regards the number as a big threat to the lack of nurses in various hospitals, especially the private hospital. Recently, the COMELEC rejected the application for accreditation of the Nurses United Party List. All these reveal that the problem is not really a shortage of nurses. On the contrary, we have a surplus of competent nurses. What we are short of is societal compassion and the initiative to pay attention to their needs and provide immediate adequate solutions.
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