Nurses At Any Price - Philippines

June 2000
It is cheaper to hire a qualified nurse from the Philippines, than it is to train one in Britain.

Fourteen thousand Philippine nurses have been recruited into the UK over the past year alone. They come from a part of the world that suffers some of the worst poverty anywhere. In Places there is little or no health care system and the mass exodus of their most highly trained nurses is making things even worse. Many of them are highly skilled specialists but the impoverished Philippine government is willing to sacrifice its healthcare provision for the hard currency the nurses send home. The recruitment process has given rise to a multi-million pound industry and with it allegations of abuse. Agents are taking money to find nurses from equally desperate hospitals in the west, and also taking cash from desperate nurses trying to escape poverty. It's another case of cash being king in a fully globalised world.

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• nurses
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• corruption
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[asprin667]

@3somebeenlaiden

It is ignorant to pass judgment on an entire nation when the biggest problems come from the "Upper" crust of society here. We have our poor, or homeless, and our own who are oppressed just like any place in the world. Regular people are always the ones who pay the price of the transgressions that our government does. Changes start from within but, so many people have grown accustomed to this way and it wont change until their eyes are opened.

[julosx]

Now people are paying to have a job... A nightmare come true.

[ChocoSyrupOnMyAbs]

This is what happens when you don't follow your own passion and raw talent. The parents meant well when they pushed their kids to take up Nursing, because of its demand. But since there are waaay too many Nursing students, this demand just faded in obscurity. Oh cruel irony.

[ricman46]

Has anybody ever wondered why most Filipino doctors are arrogant and disrespectful to nurses?

[iancruz75]

overproduction po kc dito sa atin

[Jridden2009]

my heart goes out to those intelligent and hard working Pinoy nurses. Over worked and under paid

[kawasakifury]

the majority of the nurses that has no job today believed before that nursing course will help them to go abroad! they always say that they really love nursing,care, patient's love. if that is true so why they are seeking for high compensation? now they are over-populated and they will pinpoint the government for lack of jobs for them.

[jambroco]

The real problem is the overwhelming population who are desperately want to leave the country due to cheap labor. A large population reeling in poverty is vulnerable for exploitation by local businesses, companies and corporations. To become a registered nurse, is in Filipinos mindset that they have better opportunity to achieve that goal to provide needs for their family.

[JaggerRockNRolla]

I hate these foreign news correspondents who make it appear that Philippines is like a dirt-poor African nation. Most major cities have their share of squatters and homeless. Manila has more because its a mega city with a population of more than 12M. I've been to US andthey have homeless there too. They have poor there too in places like Louisiana, Kentucky, E. Virgina, Tenessee, etc. India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Brazil, Indonesia, Thailand, Nigeria and others have colonies of squatters too.

[chokomani14]

thanks journey man for uploading this, its a shame that rather than filipino people who cares about this situation it seems that the other races is much aware and concern of all of it, wish my country man will have an eye for this growing problem of the filipino nurses here in our own country, and a best solution to solve this issues.

[TaBaLoTsKiE09]

@Hittokiwi we know what happened in egypt and we did the same to one of our presidents during the 70s which was against the very corrupt regime of president ferdinand marcos but it only showed us that the president is just a puppet controlled/influenced by a mastermind/s hiding behind the sidelines