POEA: 7,000 nurses allowed for overseas employment this year

The Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) on Tuesday said at least 7,000 nurses are allowed for overseas employment this year amid COVID-19 pandemic.

POEA deputy administrator Bong Plan said this is a 100% increase from the 3,500 deployment cap last year.

“Actually, from a low of 3,500 cap last year, this year we are already allowing 7,000 nurses for deployment. Basically, tumaas na po tayo ng 100% [It increased to almost 100%],” Plan said in an interview on Balitanghali.

Plan said one of the reasons for increasing the deployment cap is due to the decreasing number of COVID-19 infections in the country resulting in low demand for nurses.

“The reason is number 1, yung demand po ng mga nurses natin dito is medyo bumaba na because medyo bumaba na po ang mga cases ng COVID-19 dito sa atin,” he said.

(The demand of our nurses here slightly dropped because of the decreasing COVID-19 infections.)

“Second, mayroon na po tayong mga licensure exams para sa mga nurses natin so nakakapagdagdag tayo ng mga lisensyadong nurses natin and other healthcare workers. So these are the factors na kinokonsider natin whenever we decide on deployment cap,” he added.

(Second, we already have licensure exams for our nurses so we can add our licensed nurses and other healthcare workers. So these are the facts that we consider whenever we decide on deployment cap.)

The POEA deputy administrator said healthcare workers are in demand in countries including the United Kingdom, Germany, United States, and Saudi Arabia.

Last year, Malacañang said the annual cap for deployment of newly hired health workers abroad has been increased to 7,000 from 6,000 amid the COVID-19 pandemic. --KBK, GMA News

https://www.gmanetwork.com/news/pinoyabroad/news/814090/philippines-increases-cap-for-deployment-of-health-workers-abroad-amid-pandemic/story/