EDITORIAL - Health Workers Day

A decade before COVID-19 killed millions and unleashed a catastrophic global economic tsunami, the Philippines passed Republic Act 10069, recognizing the valuable contributions of health workers to national life. RA 10069, signed in April 2010, declared every May 7 a special working holiday in honor of health workers.

The special day, unfortunately, is not enough to make many health professionals feel appreciated in their country. Throughout the COVID-19 crisis, they faced the highest risk as frontliners in a war that raged for over a year with humans lacking any weapon to fight back. Doctors, nurses and other healthcare workers along with their loved ones were among the first to die due to COVID in that year without vaccines, and with health frontliners initially scrambling for personal protective equipment and even face masks.

Health frontliners were hailed as heroes throughout the COVID lockdowns. Yet they had to fight for pandemic hazard pay and benefits that were often delayed, together with their pre-COVID demand for higher salaries.

Little wonder that many health workers, particularly nurses, opted not to work during that high-risk first phase of the pandemic. And as soon as the government eased an overseas deployment ban, they left in droves for jobs abroad where they believed they could get better protection from COVID infection while receiving higher remuneration for the same work.

Three years into the pandemic, this exodus of health professionals continues. Even with the COVID threat easing, the global demand for health workers remains high, with advanced economies aggressively recruiting by dangling attractive remuneration and working conditions that developing countries cannot match. Some wealthy destination countries have eased language requirements and are allowing migrant health workers to bring their families with them.

This phenomenon has raised concern within the World Health Organization, which has warned of the consequences of a shortage of healthcare workers in lower income economies. In the Philippines, small private hospitals have been the worst hit. Unable to offer the salaries sought by health workers, several have been forced to downscale their operations or even shut down. Even large hospitals have complained of a shortage of health professionals.

Two days before the Philippines marked National Health Workers Day, health professionals staged a “unity march” in Manila, reiterating their demand for higher pay and the payment of delayed COVID benefits.

Meanwhile, even with the Universal Health Care law that is gradually being rolled out, quality health care remains a luxury for millions of impoverished Filipinos. This is a crisis that demands urgent attention from all stakeholders. Decisive action cannot wait for the next pandemic.