Being a nurse means to hold all your own tears and start drawing smiles on people’s faces
— Anonymous
IT’S been two years past and until now more than 126,000 medical staff in hospitals across the country has yet to receive their Covid risk allowances that were promised to them for the sacrifices they have made in responding to government’s call in the fight against the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
Still, government has hailed healthcare workers as the new breed of heroes simply because they have been at the frontline of the fight against the coronavirus, which to date have claimed more than 6.3 million lives worldwide (60,0495 in the Philip[pines as of June 23, 2022).
Like soldiers in the battlefield, they brave the dangers of wrestling an invisible foe that threatens them in every way possible.
But apparently though, it appears that the praises nurses and doctors receive from government mean nothing and are empty words because the promise of just rewards and compensation remain relatively unfulfilled thus forcing a growing number of them to leave the country in an exodus that started even before Covid-19 more than a decade ago.
Underpaid and turning their back on the hope of promises to be fulfilled, they sorely lack the recognition they deserve so they search for a better place to work where they would be treated better and given higher compensation that would provide enough for themselves and their families.
And the Diaspora has triggered grave concern from several medical institutions, among them the country’s largest referral facility for Covid-19 which is now suffering from a scarcity of nurses and even doctors.
According to Philippine General Hospital (PGH) spokesperson Dr. Jonas Del Rosario, (they) are now experiencing an ‘exodus’ of nurses, following the resignation of a total of 107 of them since the middle of last year and he fears that this would not be the last as more nurses are planning to resign in the following months.
And again we blame the hegira on government’s unfulfilled promises that our nurses and doctors have long been waiting for to be given to them. Catholic priest Father Robert Reyes, who is known for speaking out on human rights issues, has accused government of betraying them by not paying them their promised pandemic and health benefits.
According to Fr. Reyes, there is no reason why authorities should delay the release of the 7.9 billion peso (US$158 million) Covid fund to help health workers in the private sector. This government had promised to pay in October two years ago amid the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Cash allowances were supposed to have been be distributed to medical frontliners working in private hospitals as risk benefits in case they contracted the virus and were forced into quarantine without pay but health workers who claim they have still not received any payment from this fund has already breached 120,000 individuals.
And our priest from Cubao Diocese, known also as the ‘Running Priest’ for his protest running activities, said he is hoping “the money is still there and has not been used by corrupt politicians for campaigns in the last election.”
He noted: “Our doctors and nurses readily served the sick with professionalism, not thinking of their own health and safety. Some of them died because they had contracted the virus before the vaccines were introduced”
He added that it was “highly unjust” and a betrayal to delay the release of the allowance, especially after doctors and nurses risked their lives to take care of Covid patients.
“Our doctors and nurses readily served the sick with professionalism, not thinking of their own health and safety. Some of them died because they had contracted the virus before the vaccines were introduced. Yet why are we delaying the benefits that they deserve?” Fr. Reyes pointed out in protest.
We interviewed several doctors and nurses and they enthused that they are already contemplating to go abroad to work because it doesn’t make sense to work here if the government does not give them what is due them.
In reality, disgruntlement among our health workers has actually grown sharply in recent years over poor salaries, benefits and what they say is an unexplained lack of government support.
In comparison, our nurses are given an entry salary of US$440 (more than PhP24,000 currently) per month while a policeman receives a monthly salary of US$600 (almost PhP33,000).
According to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), in 2019, before the pandemic, about 17,000 of our nurses went to work abroad. Two years later, over 23,000 more, representing 85 percent of all nurses in the country, left for greener pastures.
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