12,500 nurses needed this year says Drilon

MANILA, August 22, 2011-Senator Franklin Drilon, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee announced Sunday that about 12,500 nurses for new nursing position this year are needed by the government where the committee Budget Secretary Florencio “Butch” Abad bared to grant Health Secretary Enrique Ona an authorization to hire an additional 10,000-12,500 nursing professionals in the government workforce.

Drilon said that it aims to cut the surplus of nursing graduates in the Philippines, revealing that they agreed that between now and the end of the year, the Department of Health (DOH) should be given an authorization to hire 10,000-12,500 nurses.

During the agency’s budget hearing, there are currently 287,000 nursing graduates who are either unemployed or underemployed. Over the weekend, it was announced that another 37,513 examinees passed the Nurse Licensure Examination administered last July.

It was discovered that the Budget department disallowed the hiring of an additional 4,000 in the DOH workforce due to a ban on hiring of administrative positions, apparently due to the discrepancy with the way the Department of Budget and Management interpreted administrative posts during the finance committee hearing.

“There is glaring deficiency of nursing staff in state hospitals, compounded by the fact that the allowed staffing pattern is not actually filled up particularly in regional government hospitals, adding that our health system will be given a temporary relief due to the hiring of additional nurses,” Drilon said.

The Finance committee will determine now how many new nursing positions are needed for the next proposed budget year. (Jason de Asis)