My maternal grandmother was brought to a public hospital for consultation a couple of days ago as she developed a nagging cough accompanied by a slight fever. She arrived at the emergency department of the said hospital at 8 a.m. (with another relative) but I had to bring her to a private hospital by late afternoon that same day as it is impossible for her to be admitted owing to an overwhelming number of patients ( more than a hundred in the ER alone) the short-handed hospital staff had to attend to.
It was already 6 p.m. by the time we arrived at the private hospital. I counted seven (7) patients who were at the emergency room ahead of us. Of the seven patients, three were hypertensive, one was asthmatic, two were retching, and another patient sustained minor injuries due to a motorcycle accident. It took 30 minutes before my grandmother was interviewed by a medical intern and two hours before she was examined by the resident-on-duty. And it was another hour before the required documentation was accomplished by the nursing staff. I asked one of the two nurses assigned at the emergency room that time for the reason behind the delay and I was told that they have more urgent admissions to attend to. Finally, my grandmother was brought up to her room but it took them three hours to do so.
Apparently, this private hospital, too, is short-handed.
It has been the practice of hospital administrators to cut short on operating expenses by not hiring new nurses when in fact, there is a long list of aspirants waiting to fill up existing nursing vacancies. What they do is simply rely on the availability of clinical instructors and nursing students sent by affiliate nursing schools to help ease the workload of their overworked and often underpaid nursing staff. Another shameful scheme is to require applicants to render pro-bono service lasting 3-6 months - often charging exorbitant training fees- and without assurance of being hired at all. More amount of work rendered, less money spent on wages. Very clever (grrrr!).
The nursing shortage here in the Philippines is just a figment of some lawmakers' imagination. There is no brain drain or brain hemorrhage as far as nurses are concerned because the truth is, there is an oversupply of registered nurses that hospital administrators have more than enough manpower pool that would probably last them ten years or so.
Just recently, Pinoy R.N. carried an article on the exploitation of nurses by private and public hospitals. Finally, the Philippine Nursing Association and Senator Pia Cayetano have something to say on the issue. Still, official statements however strongly-worded, are just words. I believe the unfortunate nursing workforce needs something concrete. And frankly, I don't expect favorable results within the next 5 years. Tee-hee!My grandmother was discharged today and the total bill for her two-day stay at the medical ward of the private hospital is Php15000++. Not bad for a short stay, a chest X-ray, an ultrasound, routine blood tests, meds, and two visits by the attending physician.
Indeed, the price of illness is steep. I wouln't mind, really, if I don't get to hear a hospital staff say, "I'm sorry we cannot attend to your sick relative immediately as we are terribly short-handed."
Alas, I can almost hear somebody special say,"What can you do?"
