Think tank pushes permanent jobs at home for health workers, not jobs abroad

MANILA, Philippines - With the global economic crisis now hitting the US private health sector hard, a militant think tank pushed for permanent jobs at home for health care workers.

IBON Foundation said creating permanent quality jobs in the country for Filipino health care workers should go beyond training and temporary employment programs.

"There is an urgent need to create permanent quality jobs in the country for Filipino nurses and health workers, especially as private health sectors worldwide are seeing the effects of the economic crisis," it said in a statement on its website.

Government recently launched the Nurses Assigned to Rural Service, a training program that aims to equip nurses with competencies required for local and overseas work by deploying them for six months to their hometowns.

But IBON said health workers should be provided with more than temporary employment at home especially since many of their traditional destinations abroad, particularly the US, are planning to cut hiring due to the crisis.

It cited a report released by the American Hospital Association that 53% of private hospitals in the US are reducing staff and 59% cutting administrative costs because of more expensive debt, investment losses, and increase in the number of patients unable to pay their bills due to the economic crisis in the US.

"The impact of the crisis on the US health sector would affect Filipino registered nurses, health care workers, and physicians—who make up roughly 34% of total Filipino workers in the US labor force—whether through retrenchments or cut in salaries and benefits,"
it said.

Job losses in the US have been reported widespread across most major sectors, the private health sector included, it added.

IBON said the crisis could also affect the recruitment of Filipino nurses to the US, the number of which has already been declining since 2004, with only 186 new hires in 2007.

"Instead of implementing its palliative training program, government can create jobs for health workers that are stable, sufficiently paying, and under good working conditions to encourage them to stay in the country and serve local health care needs," it said.

The group added government could start doing this by increasing the budget allocation for health, which has been steadily declining in real terms since 1986.

Also, IBON urged government to discontinue its policy of sending Filipinos abroad to work, especially now under increasingly difficult conditions and lesser wages due to the crisis. - GMANews.TV

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