Jobless Nursing Grads, No Nurses in Gov’t Hospitals Spell ‘Criminal Neglect’ – Drilon

Senator Franklin Drilon. Photo credit: yesfm.com.ph

Source pinoy-ofw.com - The chairman of the Senate finance committee threatened to delay the submission of the Department of Health’s budget to the Senate floor unless it resolves the unemployment problem of 287,000 nurses in the country.

During Wednesday’ hearing of the committee, Health Secretary Enrique Ona confirmed that there are 287,000 nurses who are either “unemployed in their profession”, or performing jobs other than nursing.

Ona said the ideal doctor to patient ratio should be 1:10, but acknowledged that this was not the reality in government hospitals.

“I’m sad to tell you that in our government hospitals, the ratio is 1:30,” he told the committee.

Senator Franklin Drilon, chairman of the committee, professed surprise about Ona’s revelation, and noted that the DOH has a P1 billion allocation for unfilled positions.

“We were told that there are 287,000 who are not employed in the nursing profession, meaning that there are nurses who end up in call centers, in doctors clinics and while employed, they are not employed in their profession, and some are just plainly unemployed,” he said at a press conference.