The Philippines' 'critical brain drain' as nurses leave their home country for jobs abroad

ITV

The Philippines' 'critical brain drain' as nurses leave their home country for jobs abroad

Thousands of nurses from the Phillippines move to the UK to work for the NHS, but it's leaving their health service struggling, ITV News Asia Correspondent reports.

The Philippines is the biggest exporter of nurses in the world.

It’s not a boast, it’s more of a burden for a heavily populated, developing nation where poverty, drug abuse and unemployment are major issues.

Remittances sent home from its large overseas population account for 10% of GDP, and much of that comes from nurses.

The classes at the nurse’s training college we visited in Manila were full. There’s no problem attracting students into the healthcare profession, but it is difficult to get them to stay and work in the Philippines.

The nurses say the salary in the UK is much better than the Philippines.

More at link, plus video: https://www.itv.com/news/2023-04-13/the-philippines-brain-drain-as-nurses-flock-to-the-nhs

This is not just a UK/Philippines issue, world wide health professional staff shortage is impacting health delivery in many countries.

 

This has been a major issue here too for many many years now. And it wasn't just nurses but doctors too who also had a low salary. (It was a bit odd here though, since certain types of doctors could actually earn a lot, but illegally. Patients gave a lot of money in envelopes to surgeons, obstetricians, etc, and some of these doctors even expected it and had their price list.) But other doctors, like an anesthesiologist didn't earn a lot.

To counter all of this, both the illegal payment and the brain drain, salaries have been raised recently. We have yet to see how much effect this really has but to be honest, it sounds like healthcare here is still on the brink of collapse due to lack of doctors. I'm surprised it hasn't collapsed yet.

There are some hospitals where you cannot give birth, only on certain days due to lack of doctors here. The government's current dispute with doctors is due to their disagreement with them on the restructuring of GP services.

I remember at the beginning of the pandemic we bought tons of ventillators and there was this short video where the PM proudly walked around in a hospital, chatting with doctors etc. And one young doctor said: yes, it is great that we have all these ventillators, but we don't actually have enough staff to operate them, so it is not much of a help.

I hear from people working at the ER that a surprising number of people go there with their non-emergency health issues because they actually get care there.

Also, it is very difficult to get an appointment with some clinics now as some of them are booked for months and months. So some of them won't even give you an appointment at all. My sister's doctor gave her an "emergency referral" but even that didn't matter, she was turned away.

So the solution basically is: try to avoid getting ill. Or be rich and use private healthcare services.

The major destination for people working in healthcare was the UK here too but I think it has changed now and now it is Germany and Austria. I also know a lot of nurses in elderly care work in those countries now and there aren't enough of them here anymore.

Btw, I even know a British guy living here whose business a couple of years ago was to recruit and help Hungarian healthcare workers move to the UK.

 

AFAIK the UK has since 1948 set the annual allocation of medical school places at below the total estimated need for the NHS - it's been an inbuilt part of the system. Initially it may have been well intended, allowing 'Commonwealth' trained medics the opportunity to work in the 'advanced medicine' of the UK. But the reality is that it's been cheaper to hire in doctors to the UK - and then also nurses from the late 1950s, than actually train the full number the UK has needed, a cynical position of Government that has been maintained over decades.

The UK's ageing population is accelerating the problem, but was disguised while the UK was in the EU and able to attract EU trained medics who enjoyed the same full employment and residency rights as UK medics. That ended with the UK leaving the EU and makes the UK position even more exploitative of foreign trained staff because they have no long term right to remain and may have only six month contracts, also unable to bring family with them. An unhealthy way to run a health service.

 

Saw this on the news this morning:
About 100.000 nurses left the workforce due to pandemic-related burnout and stress.

https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/13/health/nurse-burnout-post-pandemic/index.html

 

I was pleased to see the UK nursing unions turn down the government pay offer today. This may be a bit political but it is about there being any prospect of PMWE, along with anyone else, having any chance of safe effective healthcare here.

Partly I thought the nurses deserved a lot more and it would be hard for them to strike again in a year's time. But more importantly I think there needs to be a unified voice from health workers saying 'we are striking because unless we get paid a lot more and more jobs are created in the NHS nobody will be safe because working conditions continue to spiral downwards'.

 

The number of Canadian nurses getting the paperwork required to work in the United States has more than doubled in the last five years.

 

Oh yes, lots of Norwegian medical students here too (also many from Iran and Germany) and it has been like that for quite a while now. I remember even when I was a student the Norwegian medical student was a bit of a "stereotype". I remember one time a bunch of them showed up at one of the student pubs and they were sitting there, drinking beer while holding a huge Norwegian flag for some reason. So we went up to them and started asking them to translate some of the Norwegian black metal bands' names and song titles for us. Poor fellows.

 

OECD countries by Medical Graduate/year https://data.oecd.org/healthres/medical-graduates.htm#indicator-chart - makes interesting comparison to the alternate data (list on left side) - some of the countries with the highest health spending have below average graduate output - meaning an inevitable flow of graduates to high spending countries: The Countries With The Most Foreign Trained Doctors

 

Almost 20 years ago we attended a graduation ceremony for nurses. This was in Canada. Right out of school, several of them had signed up for nursing jobs in the USA.

 

Canada has planned on accepting a large number of immigrants to fill job vacancies. The cost of housing, and supply may be significant problems for them. It has been so for some time now.

Understaffing causing health care errors has been particularly noticeable to me since the pandemic started.

Newly arrived health workers are going to have a lot of socioeconomic issues to deal with.

 

If the Philippines offers their curriculum in English, then it is much easier for them to pass requirements in the USA, because they won’t have to pass English tests—the article implies that the UK still requires an English competency test.