Private hospitals called: Hike nurses’ wages, too

CEBU, Philippines — As the government prepares to increase the base pay of nurses in public hospitals, the president of a group of nurses in Cebu is calling on private hospitals to follow suit.

Joseph Stephen Descallar, president of the Philippine Nurses Association Cebu Chapter, said that private facilities should prioritize increasing the salaries and benefits of their nurses since compensation issues are among the top reasons why nurses opt not to work in hospitals, thus prompting the present “nurse shortage.”

Descallar said it is now a “sad reality” that private hospitals in Cebu and in the entire country lack nurses to attend to patients, especially in the ward sections.

“We have been calling for salary increases for our nurses, especially in the private hospitals pero mura og wala may action ang management,” said Descallar, adding that neither their organization nor the government can stop nurses from going abroad.

He said that the lack of nurses is a national issue and not unique to Cebu.

“Not only the Philippines is in need of nurses but other countries also. That's why our nurses are going abroad, including our seasoned and highly skilled nurses,” Descallar said.

He said that nurses abroad are receiving about P80,000 per month or more as compared here where they get only between P10,000 to P12,000 per month.

Descallar said that one of the ways to stop the depletion of our nurses is to increase their pay.

He cited, for instance, that in a private hospital ward, the ideal ratio is supposed to be one nurse to 10 to 12 patients but sometimes patients reach up to 30 and the nurse has to work 12 hours instead of the regular eight working hours.

It’s even worse in big government hospital ward sections where two nurses would sometimes take care of up to 60 patients.

“That is how alarming the situation is. We hope the management of government hospitals and the private hospitals will have a concrete action to solve this very alarming situation,” said Descallar.  (FREEMAN)