Working group to address the ban on the deployment of health workers abroad

Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. (Photo by BEN STANSALL / AFP)

MANILA, Philippines – To lift or not lift the ban on the deployment of health workers abroad?

That is the question that the Inter-Agency Working Group (IATF) on Emerging Infectious Diseases will address at a meeting on Monday.

Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles, an IATF spokesman, said the Philippine Foreign Employment Administration (POEA), the Department of Labor and Employment and other stakeholders had met to discuss the guidelines of the POEA directive. amid calls from affected health workers to lift the deployment ban.

“On the other hand, there is a request for IATF to review it. So we will discuss this at the meeting [on Monday]. We will publish whatever the result, ”Nograles said at an online press conference on Sunday.

Stopped at the airport

He made the remarks after many doctors, nurses, and other medical professionals were unable to leave the airport after the imposition of the ban aimed at prioritizing the national health system in the allocation of human resources.

The ban is supposed to remain in effect until the Philippines ends its state of emergency and countries that hire medical personnel have lifted their travel restrictions related to the coronavirus.

In addition to physicians and nurses, medical technologists, clinical analysts, respiratory therapists, pharmacists, laboratory technicians, X-ray / radiology technicians, nursing assistants, and medical equipment operators and repairers are also covered by the suspension of deployment.

Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. said Saturday that he would fight the POEA order, calling it an “abomination.”

Many people relayed their complaints to Locsin on social media, saying that doctors, nurses and other hospital workers who were going abroad, including those who returned to their jobs after a vacation in the country, were recently banned in Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA).

Senate President Vicente Sotto III said that while he agreed with Locsin to oppose the ban on deployment of Filipino medical professionals, it should be a different story for health workers who completed their degrees in public educational institutions.

“All graduates [of] state universities and colleges should at least stay here [in our country] to help and serve for at least two years [before they could work abroad]”Sotto said in a message from Viber to the Investigator.

Locsin continued his tirade against other government officials for preventing nurses from returning to their jobs abroad.

He supported calls to increase nurses pay rather than persuade them to stay, as he prepared to fight other Cabinet members at the IATF to overturn the travel ban on health workers.

“Right. They just want to feel patriotic. At the nurses’ expense,” Locsin tweeted Sunday, in response to a question from a television presenter about whether the government would hire all of the affected nurses.

“Which hospitals accept nurses who have been banned from their existing contracts abroad?” Locsin continued.

The foreign secretary said the nurses’ wages must be increased for them to stay.

Holiness of contracts

Locsin also noted that the ban imposed by the IATF violated the right of nurses to travel and the sanctity of contracts.

POEA administrator Bernard Olalia, in a televised interview, said that $ 200 would be given to each health worker who will not be able to leave the country due to the deployment ban.

“If you ever decide to get temporary employment while the temporary ban is in place, we’ve already coordinated with the Department of Health (DOH). [The DOH] has a hiring process for [these workers] to be able to work during the temporary suspension, “Olalia said.

When asked to comment that the $ 200 was too small compared to the wages of affected health workers abroad, he explained: “Our financial assistance may be small, but this is only temporary in nature. We don’t know if in the next two weeks, [the suspension] can already be lifted. “

Citing a report from the POEA work assistance desk in Naia, Olalia said that two dozen UK-bound health workers were recently banned from leaving the country.

“More than 20. In addition to the” balik manggagawa, “or returning health workers, we also have new hires, direct hires and government-to-government hires,” he said.

Olalia said the temporary suspension of the deployment was in response to the state of national emergency declared by President Duterte due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“This measure also supports Bayanihan’s provision to heal as a single law so that our health workers are available for the workforce due to the shrinking stocks we have now, taking into account the doctors and nurses who They are quarantined in our medical center. facilities, “Olalia said.

Nurse shortage

Anakalusugan representative Michael Defensor said the country could face a shortage of nurses because the demand for them in rich countries would increase after the pandemic.

In a statement, Ombudsman, chair of the chamber’s public accounts panel and vice chair of the health committee, said Congress could double the nurses’ initial monthly payment to P60,000 to encourage them to stay.

Currently, he said, nurses in government hospitals receive a monthly down payment of P32,053, which will increase each year to P36,619 in January 2023 under the new law on standardization of wages for public officials.

–WITH REPORTS FROM DJ YAP AND MARLON RAMOS

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