Higher Pay Abroad....

Healthcare in the Philippines is being decimated by the emigration of professionals for better pay in the US and Europe. Hundreds of private hospitals have been forced to close due to a lack of qualified healthcare workers. It was especially disturbing to see that doctors are going back to school to get nursing degrees so that they too can work overseas for better pay!

Resident doctors in private hospitals receive a measly take-home pay of up to 18,000 pesos a month (HK$2,548) while nurses are paid 12,000 pesos. In contrast, they can earn tens of thousands of dollars if they work in the United States or Europe.

Many Filipino doctors also return to school to get a degree in nursing, because nurses are in greater demand abroad.

A 50-year-old surgeon with 25 years experience as a lung specialist is among medics leaving the country to become a nurse. The doctor, who agreed to talked on the condition he was not identified, spoke Tuesday of "a health system in terminal decline."

Of 40 doctors he graduated with 25 years ago, he says, more than a third have emigrated.

Wow, what are they going to do in the Philippines?