Nurses in the Philippines struggle to work abroad as COVID-19 cases surge worldwide. karenlema and clarebaldwin report
Filipino nurse April Glory waves to her family before leaving for the UK, outside Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Pasay City, Metro Manila, Philippines August 20, 2020, after the government partially eased restrictions on health workers' movements."I hope the government will not take it against us that we are leaving", she said. Picture taken August 20, 2020.
Nurses have been leaving the Philippines for decades, encouraged by the government to join other workers who send back billions of dollars each year. On the Zoom call in August, someone played a recording of the Philippine national anthem. A Catholic priest prayed and a man with a soft voice crooned a song about passing off your burdens to God.
Abroad, Glory’s shifts were a standard eight hours and she only looked after one or two patients at a time in intensive care. Working in Yemen and then Saudi Arabia, she said she bought a house and a car. A report to Britain’s House of Commons Library in May said more than 15,000 of the National Health Service nursing jobs held by foreigners went to Filipinos - nearly a third of the total and more than any other nationality. The NHS employs a further 6,600 Filipinos in other healthcare jobs.
Health Secretary Duque has said previously that the government was appealing to the nurses’ “sense of nation, sense of people and sense of service.”Foreign countries have gone all-out to show Filipino nurses they are valued.
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