Over 2K health workers deployed so far, still far from 7,500 yearly cap —POEA

More than 2,000 healthcare workers have been deployed abroad so far this year, which is still far from the 7,500 yearly deployment cap, the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) said Monday.

At the Laging Handa public briefing, POEA Administrator Bernard Olalia said the deployment will continue despite reports on supposed understaffed hospitals in the country.

“Yung 7,000 cap po natin, mahigit 2,000 pa lang po yung na-deploy natin. Ibig sabihin niyan malayo pa po bago natin maabot yung 7,500,” he said.

(Only more than 2,000  have been deployed so far this year. It means we are still far from reaching the 7,500 yearly cap.)

Olalia said a technical working group of the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases is already discussing how to address the understaffed hospitals.

The Private Hospitals Association of the Philippines (PHAPI) earlier said the deployment cap for healthcare workers must be restricted to 5,000 per year.

PHAPI president Dr. Jose de Grano said private hospitals continue to deal with the increasing number of nurses who are moving to public health institutions or flying broad for employment.

Due to this, De Grano said some hospitals were prompted to reduce the number of their beds for patients. —KBK, GMA News