MANILA, 1 July — The Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) has said the country’s education system has to produce more nurses in the next five years to fill the requirement of foreign hospitals for Filipino nurses.
Deputy Administrator Angeles-Wong Garcia said that medical schools at present can hardly cope with the growing worldwide demand for Filipino nurses.
Garcia said Canada has an opening for 200,000 independent immigrants to work in the medical sector.
In the United States, nurses are in demand in several states where there is a shortage of these medical practitioners.
Garcia said the POEA has been negotiating with a number of US employers and providing the recruitment agency updates in the US market for nurses.
“We also plan to organize a private-sector led marketing mission to the US for the employment of our nurses,” she added.
Holland’s hospitals and health care establishments need an additional 44,000 nurses for 2001 alone.
The United Kingdom started hiring nurses in 1999 to fill up their need of about 18,000 nurses.
In Norway, the demand for nurses is estimated at 3,500. Labor Secretary Patricia Sto. Tomas was there recently to set up a recruitment system for Filipino nurses.
Italy is considering hiring Filipino nurses but the educational qualifications and credentials of Philippine-educated nurses is still being negotiated for recognition by the Italian government.
And Japan is likely to open its doors to Filipino nurses in the next two years because of its aging population.
Singapore continues to hire Filipino nurses and so has new Zealand for its rest homes for the elderly.
