A Sick Health Care System

The continuing and massive exodus of Philippine nurses and doctors to other countries all over the world is now taking a heavy toll on the country’s already inadequate health-care system. If not addressed, health experts warn, the country’s health-care system could collapse.

By Carlos H. Conde
Published: Oct. 17, 2004
Bulatlat

The pediatric ward (left) and the labor room (right) of the Cruzado Community Hospital in Pikit, North Cotabato. Photos by Gene Boyd Lumawag

PIKIT, North Cotabato – For the past eight years, Mary Jane Maximo has been ministering to the people of this small town in North Cotabato, southern Philippines. As the head nurse at the only private hospital here, she has seen the violence and felt the pain that have visited this place, such as the extreme poverty made worse by the government’s war against Muslim insurgents in 2003 that devastated the town.

Before the year ends, Maximo, a 29-year-old mother of one child, will leave the Cruzado Community Hospital and head for Saudi Arabia, where she would earn five times more than she’s making now. She’s among the thousands of Filipino nurses – and doctors — who seek jobs abroad every year, leaving behind poorly manned hospitals and clinics across the Philippines.

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