The Filipino Nurses United (FNU) demanded safety masks and PPEs for frontline health workers as the number of cases of PUIs and PUMS have increased, crowding hospitals beyond capacity after the group said the government claimed to have released 27,000 protective masks.

“But where oh where are these precious battle gears? Our nurses and health workers on the ground continue to wail about shortage of the PPEs and masks as evidenced by the increasing number of PUIs and PUMs and mortality in their ranks,” asked the group.

Frontliners across the country have long been demanding for protection since the start of the enhanced community quarantine in Luzon. Health workers have prolonged exposure to the contagion, with many getting contaminated themselves.

A nurse and 17 physicians have already succumbed to COVID-19 because of dangerous hospital settings.

Forty-four (44) health workers in three government hospitals have already tested positive for the virus, according to FNU president Maristela Abenojar.

 

Inadequate protection

The FNU raised “inadequate protection” amidst the growing threat of the virus since early February. The group submitted proposals for early intervention and prevention should the country be affected by the pandemic. These proposals, however, seemed to have fallen on deaf ears.

“Almost two months since, nurses and other frontliners are still groping and grappling with the problem of inadequate protection and desperately waiting for the direly needed masks and PPEs that the government in their media briefings committed to deliver impromptu,” added the nurses’ organization.

“We are barraged with appeals for donations that we strive to meet even on limited basis. We see many nurses don flimsy (cloth) masks that hardly protect; put on prototype PPEs made by health workers themselves or donated by civic-spirited citizens and private groups that give little assurance about safety,” they continued.

The P75 billion from the allotted P275 billion emergency fund to face COVID-19 outbreak in the country are allotted for medical equipment.

The Procurement Service of the Department of Budget and Management has facilitated the procurement of one million set of PPEs worth P1.8 billion. Each set is equipped with coveralls, N95 masks, gloves, head cover, shoe cover, goggles, surgical masks and surgical gown according to the Department of Health (DOH) on April 1.

So far, 15,000 PPE sets have arrived and 12, 040 sets have been delivered according to the Office of Civil Defense. The breakdown are as follows:

  1. East Avenue Medical Center (770 sets)
  2. San Lazaro Hospital (2,780 sets)
  3. Lung Center of the Philippines (2,800 sets)
  4. Philippine General Hospital (2,000 sets)
  5. Dr. Jose Rodriguez Memorial Hospital (2,590 sets)
  6. Armed Forces of the Philippines Medical Center (AFPMC) – (1,100 sets)

The remaining 985,000 PPE sets are said scheduled to arrive between April 6 to 24.

PPEs needed to be changed at least once every day.

The FNU warned about the “inevitable loss of precious health human resources, among them nurses, who serve as pillars of the country’s health system” if an adequate supply of safety masks and PPEs for frontline health workers are not met.

 

Overworked nurses, overstretched workforce

FNU added factors that affect the general well-being of nurses, and consequently, the quality of care they provide: extreme understaffing, scarce or lack of provisions for accommodation, transportation and food for the frontliners. Stigma on health workers as well as threats of harm from others have also been common in the middle of the pandemic.

According to Abenojar, “all nurses assigned to take care of suspected and confirmed COVID-19 patients are considered persons under monitoring (PUMs).”

After 2 weeks of duty, these nurses are then required to undergo quarantine for another 2 weeks.

Nurses from other wards would then be pulled-out to take care of the suspected and confirmed cases.

“This is the reason why FNU is appealing to the government that frontline health workers must undergo free COVID testing after duty in COVID ward and after their 2 weeks quarantine (before they resume work).  That way, we can monitor who needs to be isolated and treated, preventing themselves to be carriers of COVID to other patients and their families as well,” she added.

 

Underpaid without security of tenure

FNU also pointed out the issues on “delayed or non-payment of back salaries of nurses under the NDP program, nonpayment of hazard pay and non-implementation of the SG15 starting salary for all public health  nurses that has already an allocation in the 2020 national budget” while the government calls for underpaid volunteers to combat the pandemic.

“We are appealing to the DOH to do massive hiring of nurses (NOT volunteer nurses) with security of tenure, just compensation and benefits including hazard pay.  This will motivate our nurses not to leave the country especially now at the height of pandemic COVID 19,” said Abenojar.

Most nurses are contractuals employed through job order (JO), contract of service (COS), memorandum of agreement (MOA) or the government’s nurse deployment program (NDP). This means they only get basic pay and no benefits such as hazard pay and paid leaves.

Government nurses, which include those DOH-administered hospitals, LGU hospitals and health facilities, and nurses working in government agencies, still get P 20,754 (Salary Grade 11) as entry salary because the Supreme Court’s en banc decision to uphold the entry salary of PhP30,531 (Salary Grade 15) has yet to be implemented.

Nurses in the private sector is mandated by the minimum wage law set by the DOLE, which is around Php 537/day in the National Capital Region. The pay in other regions are lower.

 

Labor export

Meanwhile, Filipino nurses in other parts of the world get better pay. A Filipino nurse in the United States can get paid with an equivalent of PhP 297,000 per month and one in Germany can get paid at around PhP 118,000 per month. Those in Asian countries also enjoy larger salaries than back home.

These conditions have forced around 200,000 nurses to seek work in other countries, making the Philippines one of the biggest exporters in the world.

A German news article published last week said that Germany was planning to send in 75 Filipino nurses to hep in the fight against COVID-19. According to the Department of Labor and Employment, the move had been put on hold indefinitely.

In response to this, Maristela Abenojar said it “is aware that there are nurses whose travel papers are ready for them to leave the country (like Germany or USA as their destination countries).  And we understand that the low salary and lack/absence of benefits in the country are the push factors why they want to seek better pay abroad.“

“However, FNU would like our nurses who are planning to leave the country to consider their safety in their destination countries.  For instance, the USA is now the leading country with 258,112 total COVID cases and 6,572 deaths. while Germany has 89,126 total COVID cases and 1,198 deaths,” she said.

 

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