JAN.

31, 2012 DATE

NR # 2665B
REF. NO.

Bill filed protecting nurses from exploitation

A measure prohibiting the exploitative volunteerism of nurses both in public and private hospitals and health care facilities was filed at the House of Representatives. House Bill 5641, principally authored by Gabriela Rep. Emmi de Jesus, seeks to put a stop to the unscrupulous practice of many hospitals of using volunteerism or on-the-job training to exploit the countrys nurses. Our nurses have been poorly compensated, overworked and threatened of their job security It is about time that we enact legislation that strongly signals the state policy on the protection of nurses and other health workers. Hence, this proposed measure to prohibit exploitation of nurses in public and private hospitals and health care facilities, de Jesus said. The bill, to be known as An Act Prohibiting Exploitative Volunteerism of Nurses, is co-authored by Reps. Teddy Casio and Neri Colmenares (Bayan Muna), Rafael Mariano (Anakpawis), Antonio Tinio (ACT Teachers) and Raymond Palatino (Kabataan). Quoting the Philippine Nurses Association, de Jesus said, Both government public hospitals have been gaining profit in the form of exorbitant fees collected from nurses and also saving money by not hiring regular registered nurses,. As a result, nurses, particularly the unemployed ones numbering about 297,809 as of September 2011, are confused and hoping falsely that training in hospitals would expedite their hiring process for local and foreign employment, according to de Jesus. Likewise, De Jesus said registered nurses, specifically those training for the Registered Nurses for Health Enhancement and Local Service (RNheals) Program of the Department of Health or any other similar government program, are obliged to work as regular staff nurses in public health facilities for one year, receiving a measly allowance of P8,000 per month. Some nurses get an additional allowance of P2,000 from the local government units (LGUs), de Jesus added. These nurses, de Jesus said, also supervise the so-called Community Health Teams to provide basic health services in the communities such as support for immunization activities, pregnancy tracking and other health promotion activities. Considering that RNheals trainees only get P10,000 of monthly allowance, these nurses were actually underpaid, exploited monthly by the government by as low as P7,099 or as high as P12,688, de Jesus declared. The present monthly starting salaries for nurses in the government are P18,549 for Salary Grade 11 in public hospitals and P24,887 for Salary Grade 15 in rural health units/city health centers for the Nurse II position. According to de Jesus, there is a continuing exodus of health care professionals, including

JAN. 31, 2012 DATE

NR # 2665B
REF. NO.

nurses precisely because existing nursing jobs provide little or no security and/or protection and are characterized by low wages, work overload and poor opportunities for professional growth. Likewise, de Jesus said the available nursing manpower is under utilized and untapped with the nurse-patient ratio in government hospitals and public health system at 1:12 in hospital wards and 1:20,000 in community health settings. In areas where essential health services are not accessible, the government has either failed to fill up vacant plantilla positions or failed to insist on creating necessary plantilla positions that would cover the need of the community. This gap makes Filipino nurses vulnerable to various forms of exploitation, de Jesus said. This should not be so, de Jesus said, emphasizing that Republic Act 9173 or the Philippine Nursing Act of 2002, mandates that the State hereby guarantees the delivery of quality basic health services through an adequate nursing personnel system throughout the country. The bill provides that any registered nurse found to have been a victim of exploitative volunteerism shall be entitled to a full refund of all fees illegally collected and payment of unpaid salaries, which shall not be les than the applicable minimum wage for services rendered. Any person found guilty of committing these prohibited acts shall suffer the penalty of imprisonment of not less than six months and not more than one year and a fine of not less than P100,000 but not more than P500,000. If the violator is a hospital, clinic or health care facility, it shall be given 15 days to comply for the first offense, a fine of P100,000 for the second offense and P100,000 plus a ban from availing of services of volunteer registered nurses for the third offense. If the offender is an association, corporation or juridical person, a warning shall be issued for the first offense, suspension of license to operate for not less than one month but not less than six months for the second offense and the cancellation of the license to operate for the third offense. The bill mandates the Department of Health (DoH) and the Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE) to monitor the compliance with and implementations of the provisions of this Act by public hospitals or health care facilities. (30) eag