Solon pushes for P60,000 salary of nurses to make them stay

A lawmaker said that the only way to make nurses stay in the country is to increase their entry-level salary to P60,000 a month.

Anakalusugan Party-List Rep. Mike Defensor warned that the country might face a severe shortage of nurses in the future when COVID-19 pandemic is over as demand for these health workers abroad will shoot up.

“We foresee wealthy nations around the world rushing to expand the capacities of their public health systems and stepping up their recruitment of Philippine-educated nurses once the COVID-19 pandemic is suppressed,” said Defensor, who is also the vice chairperson of House Committee on Health.

Defensor urged Congress to double the minimum salary of nurses to P60,000 in both public and private hospitals to encourage them to practice here in the country instead of going abroad.

“The initial figure we are looking at is P60,000 monthly, which is more or less the same starting pay being offered by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to Filipino nurses, without counting fringe benefits,” he said.

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The solon made the statement after Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) had ordered to temporarily ban the overseas deployment of nurses, medical technologists, medical technicians, and health workers.

Currently, nurses working in Department of Health (DOH) hospitals receive a minimum salary of P32,053 per month, which will steadily increase every year until it reaches P36,619 by January 2023 under the new Salary Standardization Law for government workers. (With reports from mb.com.ph)