PAY HIKE FOR FILIPINO PHYSICIANS

Villar proposes pay hike for Filipino physicians
Senate President Manny Villar yesterday urged his colleagues in Congress to support bills that would make the salaries and benefits received by Filipino doctors at par with those received by medical practitioners in other countries.

On the occasion of the observance of National Medicine Week, Villar said doctors who opt to stay in the country should be commended.

Villar called for a review of the salaries of government doctors, nurses, barangay health workers, and other medical practitioners to make them more competitive to help curb the mass exodus of doctors and nurses.

Based on statistics from the Health Alliance for Democracy (HeAD), from 2000 to 2003, a total of 51,580 Filipino nurses left the country and around 5,000 doctors followed suit in 2004.
Moreover, reports said around 80 percent of government doctors are now enrolled in nursing schools nationwide presumably with the hope of getting higher paying jobs as nurses overseas.
As this developed, the doctor-patient ratio in the country worsened further at one doctor per 28,643 patients as of 2003.

According to Villar, "these statistics are a cause for concern already. It was also reported that one out of every five Filipino doctors works as a nurse abroad. I believe that the only reason why these qualified doctors would rather work as nurses abroad is because of the higher pay there.’’

Villar said doctors who work as nurses in the US earn 16 times more than government doctors here, or over P200,000 a month. Nurses working in Singapore, Saudi Arabia, and the United Kingdom earn monthly salaries of P40,000 to P120,000 or even more.

Acknowledging the gravity of the problem posed by the exodus of medical professionals, Malacañang, through the Department of Budget and Management, said it would spend around P43 billion a year in the next four years to boost the salary scale of government doctors and nurses.