Health workers with contracts as of March 8 allowed to go abroad
Future applications for health care jobs abroad on hold for now
MANILA, Philippines — Health workers with existing overseas employment contracts as of March 8, 2020 will be allowed to leave the country, the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases said Tuesday.
Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles said in a virtual briefing that medical and allied healthcare workers are exempted from the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration resolution banning the deployment of 14 categories of healthcare professionals.
“All medical and allied healthcare professionals with perfected and signed overseas employment contracts as of March 8, 2020 shall be allowed for deployment abroad,” Nograles, spokesperson of the Task Force, said.
Those who will leave the country will sign a declaration that they know the risks they are facing by going abroad, as advised by the government.
POEA chief Bernard Olalia said the resolution banning deployment of health workers overseas is effective “until the national state of emergency is lifted and travel restrictions are lifted at the destination countries.”
The deployment ban covers the following professionals:
- Doctors
- Nurses
- Microbiologists
- Molecular biologists
- Medical technologists
- Clinical analysts
- Respiratory therapists
- Pharmacists
- Laboratory technicians
- Radiologic technicians
- Nursing assistants
- Operator of medical equipment
- Supervisor of health services and personal care
- Repairmen of medical hospital equipment
Olalia said the POEA resolution is meant to sustain the supply and meet any future contingencies amid the COVID-19 crisis in the country.
Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. said Monday night that health workers with existing contracts of work overseas can depart the country.
“Future applications frozen until notice provided all our 450,000+ nurses—exceeeding by 250,000 ideal [World Health Organization] ratio of people-to-nurses—must be given employment,” Locsin wrote in a tweet.
Locsin previously objected to the deployment ban calling it an “abomination.”
“We will fight the ban in Cabinet. We will fight shit for brains. We will never surrender our constitutional right to travel and our contractual right to work where there is need for our work,” he said last Saturday, April 11.
Hiring of more health workers
Nograles meanwhile said the task force is directing the Department of Health to hire additional healthcare workers to beef up manpower in our local healthcare system.
The hiring is subjected to the evaluation of the Department of Budget and Management, Nograles said.
President Rodrigo Duterte reported to Congress,a requirement of the 'Bayanihan' Act that gave him sweeping powers to address the novel coronavirus pandemic, that the Health department will hire 857 healthcare workers, under contract of service.
They will be deployed to the Lung Center of the Philippines, the Philippine General Hospital and the Dr. Jose N. Rodriguez Memorial Medical—hospitals designated as COVID-19 referral facilities. — with reports from The STAR/Mayen Jaymalin
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