Shortage Of Nurses In Cebu Troubles Private Hospitals
CEBU – Private hospitals in Cebu are troubled with the shortage of nurses, causing some to shut down rooms or even entire floors.
Hence, there are patients tat have no choice but to wait for painful long hours in emergency rooms (ER) or in hospital hallways.
According to SunStar, this was further proved by Philippine Nurses Association Cebu chapter president Joseph Stephen Descallar in a summit on Sunday (December 15).
“It’s true that there is a lack of nurses now. Even some private hospitals in Cebu, particularly, are lacking 200 nurses. One government hospital is in need of 50 nurses. In fact, I was interviewed about the wards being closed, which is really true,”
Descallar added that the ideal nurse-to-patient ratio is 1:10 up to 12 patients. There are, however, times that a nurse is forced to tend to 30 to 15 patients and work for 12 to 16 hours.
“In the ICU (Intensive Care Unit), the ratio should be 1:1. If it’s a maternal facility, it’s another ratio. But what’s happening now is one nurse for one ward,”
The PNA-Cebu president elaborated that several factors have contributed to the shortage of nurses in private hospitals, adding that nurses in government hospitals are paid more than those working in private hospitals.
As per the report, there are those who worked abroad or have entered the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) sector, he added.
“For example, there are some BPOs now that are hiring USRN (US-registered nurses) and Filipino-registered nurses and are offering bigger salaries. So instead of going abroad, some nurses work here but receive international rates. One of their jobs is to review charts of patients abroad,”
Nurses working in BPOs earn between ₱40,000 and ₱50,000, he added.
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