EDITORIAL - Stop giving them more reasons to leave

As if they didn’t need any more reasons not to work here in the Philippines aside from the low pay, long hours, and abuse, a nurses’ group is claiming that the government seems to be taking their health and safety for granted.

This after they said substandard personal protective equipment provided by the government may have contributed to COVID-19 infection among health workers.

In an interview over ANC, Janice Pauline Budy, president of the San Lazaro Hospital chapter of the Filipino Nurses United, said the respirator masks provided to them by the Department of Health appeared to be counterfeit or were not approved by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or the World Health Organization.

The group concluded that these could have led to infections among their ranks.

“Bakit di kami ma-provide-an ng kalidad kung buhay din namin ang nakasalalay...syempre, kung buhay namin, buhay di ng mga pasyente (Why can’t we be provided quality masks if our lives are at stake. Of course, if our lives are at stake so are the lives of our patients)," Budy said.

Budy’s claims would have sounded farfetched had it not been for a recent development.

This is the admission by Pharmally Pharmaceutical Corp. executive Krizle Mago before the Senate Blue Ribbon committee that they were ordered to make it appear some face masks sold to the government were still effective even if they were past their recommended time for use.

While there are speculations, it has not been substantiated yet that Pharmally also provided the substandard or counterfeit respiratory masks. However, it certainly gives the impression that the distribution by the government of substandard Personal Protective Equipment for use by nurses and other medical workers seems to be widespread.

This is another issue that has to be looked into and piled up among other issues, unfortunately. Of course it also has to be addressed and rectified, both by finding and punishing those responsible and providing our health workers adequate protection.

It’s like what Budy said, if their lives are on the line, so are the lives of the patients they care for.

There is also another issue here. It’s oversights like these that make even more nurses want to leave the country. We want to keep our nurses healthy so they can keep patients healthy. We also want to stop giving them more reasons to leave.