This is a reaction to the Inquirer article titled “One nurse’s journey: How a nation loses its caregivers” dated Dec. 25, 2024. We truly feel our nurses’ plight, which seriously and urgently, needs to be addressed by the government.
Praised as heroes and the best in the world, Filipino nurses’ salaries and welfare have been chronically neglected by the government and paid with little attention and lip service. Their plight mirrors the dismal health situation in the country.
Health is a basic human right, as stated in the Philippine Constitution, therefore, it is a primary obligation of the state. However, the grim reality is that health care is a privilege. Five out of 10 Filipinos deaths have not received any kind of medical attention.
In the first year of his term, the President verbalized the value of nurses in health care. However, he admitted that the budget was inadequate to provide for a salary increase and improved working conditions. This budget reflects the government’s priorities. Amid various problems, such as poor health conditions, a severe irresponsive health care system and the apparent chronic understaffing of health-care workers, the bicameral conference committee even slashed the proposed 2025 budget of the Department of Health (DOH) by more than P30 billion. Worst, the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth), which has the mandate to ensure health accessibility, was stripped of its P74 billion subsidy for vulnerable sectors.
As long as health is not prioritized, the right to health will be continuously violated by the state. People’s health will continue to worsen.
On the other hand, nurses deserve better treatment through decent salaries and better working conditions. They deserve overtime pay for extended work hours and safe nurse-to-patient ratio through the enforcement of the DOH standard of 1:12 in public hospitals. But with the government labor export policy, the government’s solution to higher salaries of nurses has been bilateral agreements with recruiting countries resulting in loss of skilled human resources in the country.
Taking care of nurses is also taking care of the health of the citizens. When people’s health is a priority, nurses’ and other health workers’ welfare will also improve. When nurses and health workers suffer from government neglect, people’s health is abandoned.
The 2025 DOH budget should be increased. The more than P30-billion budget for the department should be restored and the P74-billion PhilHealth subsidy should be given to public hospitals for free health services, including free medicine, diagnostics, and treatments. The salaries of nurses should at least be P50,000 a month and their working conditions should be improved. Then, nurses may be encouraged to stay and render much-needed healthcare services to the people.
Jocelyn S. Andamo, RN