Medical tourism industry could help address exodus of OFWs – senator

MANILA, Philippines - Senator Richard Gordon said the Philippines could put a stop to the exodus of Filipino workers abroad if the country would develop its medical tourism industry.

Gordon said the Philippines could get a share of the reported $30.3 billion to $79.4 billion expenditure of as many as 15.75 million Americans who seek medical services in other countries.

“I think this is an opportunity for the Philippines to no longer just send our people to find their future in foreign shores but to find our future here in our country," Gordon said in a statement issued on Tuesday.

Last June, more than 28,000 examinees passed the licensure exam for nurses and most of these are expected to remain unemployed for some time due to lack of vacancies.

Officials attributed the swelling number of unemployed nurses to a slowdown in hiring of foreign nurses in the United States and United Kingdom since 2006.

There has an excess of tens of thousands of licensed nurses, and the number is expected to grow further as the country’s 400 nursing schools continue to churn our fresh graduates, according to reports from government officials.

Due to of lack of government and private hospitals in the country, many nurses are reportedly being forced to work in call and medical transcriptions centers sprouting in the country.

Gordon, who chairs the Senate tourism committee, said the improvement of the local medical tourism industry would make overseas employment an option rather than a necessity to Filipino health workers.

According to the senator, Laguna alone is booming with spas, most of which have properly trained masseurs and masseuses.

“Medical tourism simply means that you take advantage of the ageing populations of the world and start bringing them in here not only because they are less expensive, but also because we can do it better," Gordon said.

Gordon authored Senate Bill 88 also known as the Tourism Act of 2007, which seeks to declare a national policy for tourism as an engine of investment, employment, growth, and national development. - MJU, GMANews.TV

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