MANILA, Philippines — Private hospitals will be forced to increase the salary of their nurses as soon as the P3.18-billion assured allocation for the increase in the benefits of government nurses takes effect next year.
“Private hospitals will have to raise their starting pay rates as well, if they want to attract continuous supply of nursing staff, many of whom are raring to leave the country in search of greener pastures overseas,” Anakalusugan party-list Rep. Mike Defensor said.
This positive domino effect will be felt next month after both the Senate and the House of Representatives earmarked P3.18 billion in the national budget to fund the 48-percent increase in the base pay of government nurses.
“We want the higher base pay implemented right away, not just for the benefit of our nurses in the government, but also because it will put an upward pressure on the salaries of their counterparts in the private sector,” Defensor said.
The vice chairman of the House’s health committee and chairman of the public accounts committee is counting on the allotment’s approval once the two versions of the budget are reconciled by the House and the Senate.
The Supreme Court (SC) upheld on Oct. 8 the validity of a provision in the Philippine Nursing Act of 2002 that bumped up to Salary Grade 15 (P30,531) the minimum pay of nurses retained by the national government, mostly in hospitals run by the Department of Health.
At present, their floor pay is pegged at Salary Grade 11 (P20,754).
The tribunal handed down the ruling after the House approved on Sept. 20 the entire budget and transmitted the copy to the Senate.
“The MPBF is a lump sum in the budget used to fund deficiencies in the authorized salaries, bonuses, allowances, associated premiums and other similar personnel benefits of national government employees,” Defensor said, referring to the miscellaneous personnel benefits fund.
In the proposed P4.1-trillion General Appropriations Act for 2020, a total of P63.2 billion has been set aside for the MPBF, up 78 percent from P35.5 billion this year, according to Defensor.
Brain drain, exodus continue
Prospects of better pay notwithstanding, a substantial number of licensed Filipino nurses have still opted to seek greener pastures abroad, records from the United States’ National Council of State Boards of Nursing Inc. (NCSBN) have shown.
Former congressman Aniceto Bertiz III, who now sits as chairman of ACTS-OFW Coalition of Organizations party-list, disclosed that a total of 9,195 nurses sought jobs in America between January and September this year.
“The number is up 30 percent versus the 7,119 Philippine-educated nurses who took America’s eligibility test or the NCLEX for the first time in the same nine-month period in 2018, without counting repeaters,” Bertiz said, referring to the National Council Licensure Examination.
Based on NCSBN figures dated Oct. 30, Bertiz revealed that a total of 1,064 Indians, 805 Puerto Ricans, 638 South Koreans and 623 Nigerians also took the NCLEX for the first time from January to September.
The NCSBN administers the NCLEX for registered nurses. The exam, which costs $200 (about P10,200), is the final step in the US nurse licensure process.
For the first time, the number of foreign-educated nurses taking the NCLEX is considered a reliable indicator as to how many of them are trying to enter the profession in America.
Jamaicans, Canadians and Cubans also compete with Filipinos in America’s nursing labor market, according to Bertiz, who welcomed the recent SC ruling.
The considerably improved starting pay, however, is not expected to hold back Filipino nurses from seeking “vastly superior standards of living overseas, especially in North America,” the former congressman said.
“We have many young, upwardly mobile nurses and other health professionals who really want to live and work overseas, mainly in America and Canada,” he added.
Bertiz also pointed out that the P30,531 monthly base pay, when annualized, amounts to only P396,903, to include the 13th-month pay.