EDITORIAL - Still overworked and underpaid

As in much of the world outside the British Commonwealth, there has been a high interest among Filipinos in developments in the United Kingdom following the death of Queen Elizabeth II. Aside from the global popularity and pervasiveness of British culture, including the availability of numerous materials on multimedia about the British royal family, there are strong people-to-people bonds between the Philippines and the UK.

Many Filipinos have received world-class education in British schools, among them President Marcos and his sons. And among the biggest Filipino ambassadors of goodwill in the UK are nurses and other health care workers. Only last July, Queen Elizabeth, assisted by then Prince Charles, had conferred the prestigious Gold Cross medal on the UK’s National Health Service, with Filipina nurse May Parsons among those present to receive the award at Windsor Castle.

Parsons was the first person to administer the first globally recognized COVID-19 vaccine, the Pfizer-BioNTech jab, in December 2020. British officials said her presence at the awarding ceremony in Windsor was meant to show that “the UK is grateful to the 30,000 Filipino nurses working for our NHS.” That’s more than half of the 53,000 Filipinos currently residing in the UK. And there will likely be more, if opportunities open up; the UK is one of the top destinations for Filipino nurses.

During her recent visit to the Philippines, where she obtained a nursing degree at the University of Santo Tomas, Parsons had lamented the low pay received by Filipino nurses especially in private hospitals. The problem of overworked and underpaid healthcare workers has plagued health services even before the COVID-19 pandemic. HCWs are now seeking the help of the Department of Labor and Employment to address low pay and non-payment of benefits in private hospitals, where the DOLE said monthly pay can be as low as P5,000 to P12,000 for a 10- to12-hour working day.

Entry-level pay for workers in government hospitals is set at P30,000. But HCWs in these hospitals are also complaining of long delays in the payment of their hazard pay, One COVID Allowance Information System and health emergency allowance. President Marcos, while recently hailing nurses as “heroes” of the pandemic and promising to improve their plight, had pointed out the financial constraints currently faced by the government.

Unless nurses and other HCWs get decent compensation, however, the country will continue to see their exodus for greener pastures, not just in the UK but all over the world. And it is the Philippine health care system that will feel the pain.