Chronic Health Worker Shortage Threatens Universal Health Care in the Philippines
The Philippines is struggling with a long-standing shortage of nurses and doctors, and many new health graduates are not ready for work in real-world public health settings. This shortage continues despite the country’s reputation as one of the top exporters of healthcare professionals.
A recent study by researchers from Ateneo de Manila University, published in the journal *Human Resources for Health*, highlights major obstacles to the country’s Universal Health Care (UHC) rollout. Public health facilities face challenges in hiring due to budget limits and policy issues. At the same time, private hospitals are losing workers because of low pay and limited resources.
UHC Law Faces Implementation Gaps
The Universal Health Care Act, or Republic Act No. 11223, was signed into law in February 2019 to give all Filipinos access to affordable, quality health services. The law promises automatic health insurance coverage and shifts more responsibility for health services to local governments.
However, researchers say the law’s rollout has been weak, especially in workforce deployment and coordination between national and local systems. The implementation began just before the COVID-19 pandemic, which put further pressure on the already fragile health system.
According to the study, the country has only 7.92 doctors for every 10,000 people, falling below the international standard of 10. The nursing gap is even wider, with the country short of at least 127,000 nurses. Most shortages are in the private sector. Many Filipino health workers continue to leave for better opportunities abroad, worsening the problem. Meanwhile, current medical training does not prepare graduates well for service in remote or underserved communities.
Recommendations to Strengthen the Health Workforce
To fix these problems, the researchers suggest ten key actions:
1. Stronger links between schools and health facilities to improve graduate placement and service coverage.
2. Incentives like scholarships and postgraduate training for health workers who agree to serve locally.
3. Fairer access to specialist training for doctors.
4. Revisions to medical and health education to include community health and UHC topics.
5. Reforms in higher education and the civil service system.
6. Updates to the Local Government Code to support health worker deployment.
7. Long-term recruitment and retention plans at the local level.
8. A review of training program costs and funding.
9. UHC-focused training for both new and current health workers.
10. Fairer labor agreements with countries that hire Filipino health workers.
These steps aim to reduce the workforce gap and help build a fairer, more effective healthcare system. The Ateneo study offers a clear warning: without urgent investment in local health workers, the goal of universal healthcare in the Philippines will remain out of reach.
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