Healthcare workers have been stretched to their limit throughout the pandemic as they tend to patients’ needs.
And with Covid-19 still surging around the world, including the Philippines, healthcare workers are in high demand.
To ensure they have sufficient nurses, the Philippines government suspended permits for nurses who want to work abroad on 1 Jun.
This move could potentially affect Singapore’s nursing workforce, which comprises about a third of foreign nationals.
Every year, the Philippines sends thousands of medical workers abroad to work, including to Singapore.
At the start of June, as the Philippines’ Covid-19 cases surged, they suspended the sending of their nurses, assistants, and aides abroad.
This decision could impact Singapore’s nursing workforce, where about 33% of workers are foreigners.
According to the Ministry of Health (MOH), 7,600 nurses working here are from the Philippines as of the end of 2019, reported The Straits Times (ST).
MOH said they would continue assessing the situation and ensuring we have sufficient nurses to meet our healthcare needs.
Since 2013, Singapore’s nursing workforce has grown substantially, from 36,000 then to 42,000 in 2019.
Throughout this, the proportion of foreign nationals has remained relatively constant.
According to Singapore Nursing Board’s annual report, Filipino nurses form the largest pool of migrant nurses.
At 5,245 nurses in 2019, Filipinos make up about 29% of our enrolled nurses and 15% of all registered nurses with higher qualifications.
Singapore’s next biggest source of registered nurses is from Malaysia, with 2,351 Malaysian nationals in 2019.
Over the years, Singapore has been trying to attract and retain more locals to the nursing workforce.
As part of this, the government announced that healthcare workers would be getting a pay raise between 3 and 14% starting from July.
Speaking to ST, the director of IHH Healthcare Singapore, which operates 4 hospitals, including Mount Elizabeth Hospital, expressed that Singapore has made significant progress.
However, there is still a need for the nursing workforce to be supplemented heavily by nurses from overseas, including the Philippines.
Other key sources of nurses are Malaysia, Indonesia, India, China, and Myanmar.
This is especially due to the demands of the ongoing pandemic, which left nurses to care for patients while tirelessly battling Covid-19.
The director noted that many nurses are “badly in need of reprieve” and had hoped more nurses could ease their workload.
She then concluded that the situation in the Philippines has left them concerned.
It has indeed been an incredibly tough year and a half for all healthcare workers.
This pandemic has shown us just how essential our healthcare workers are to the country.
Hopefully, Singapore will maintain our strong healthcare workforce as we continue our battle against Covid-19.
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Featured image adapted from Facebook.
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