MANILA – Leading American business executives have expressed their intention to work with the Philippines in the area of healthcare.
During a meeting with President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. on Monday, July 10, the Business Executives for National Security (BENS) reaffirmed its commitment to boost the cooperation and investment of the United States to the Philippines in terms of health and other areas including digital infrastructure and energy programs.
According to Malacañang, Marcos and the American executives discussed potential business opportunities in the healthcare system in the country, especially in the nursing industry.
Marcos has cited the administration’s ongoing efforts in improving the country’s healthcare system, including the establishment of specialty hospitals and addressing the lack of healthcare workers.
“So one of the main things that we are doing – in fact, we are groundbreaking a big multi-specialty hospital just outside Manila soon and we are going to open more of them as annexes hospitals,” Marcos told members of the BENS.
He emphasized that the Philippine government aims to build more hospitals in the far-flung areas.
“I’m always been a great believer of bringing healthcare down to the grassroots level. Right now, there is a tendency for us to only go to the hospital when it is absolutely necessary … So healthcare has become an important part of this administration efforts,” he added.
Victim of own success
The President also emphasized that the Philippines became “a victim of our own success” especially during the pandemic where a lot of world leaders have asked for the country’s help to deploy more Filipino nurses and medical practitioners abroad.
It resulted in the shortage of healthcare workers in the country, he added.
“Unfortunately, in terms of healthcare workers, we have become victims of our own success in that the Filipinos did really well during the pandemic. And so every leader I meet says ‘can we have more Filipino med techs, doctors, and nurses?’ So we’re having a shortage here,” Marcos said.
The chief executive told the business leaders that the country’s Department of Health (DOH) already has some plans on how to resolve the problem.
“So we are trying to find schemes so as to alleviate that problem. One of the things our Department of Health has come up with is that we are coming to an arrangement with countries who will accept Filipino healthcare workers to at the same time train the equivalent number of healthcare workers that will stay in the Philippines,” he said.
“We are trying to accelerate the board examinations of nurses so we can actually put out more. So that’s the adjustment that we are trying to make. So it’s not only in the facilities, it’s also in the training. We are very proud of them but we wish they’d stay home,” he added.
The BENS is a 10-member business group in the US and founded in 1982. The group is currently in the Philippines until Thursday, July 13, to engage with Philippine leaders at the nexus of business and national security and discuss potential areas for investment and cooperation in the country.
The BENS members come from diverse backgrounds and expertise including healthcare, security and manufacturing, among others. (MB)
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