Researcher: The price of bringing in Filipino nurses is high for the Philippines

Bringing healthcare personnel from third countries to the Greenlandic healthcare system can have major consequences for the recruiting countries, points out the researcher.

Shortages of staff and problems recruiting and retaining people have put pressure on the healthcare system.

And a pressured healthcare system can lead to a number of consequences. Both for citizens and patients, but also for the economy. Solving the staff shortage by hiring temporary workers and short-term employees from Denmark and other Nordic countries is particularly expensive.

This is pointed out by the chairman of the Economic Council, Torben M. Andersen.

– The (short-term employees, ed.) are expensive in themselves, but it also means that there is not much continuity in the departments, he says.

(short-term employees, ed.)

This year, the Health Service has already exceeded its budget by around 65 million kroner.

This was written by the woman responsible for it all, naalakkersuisoq for Health and People with Disabilities, Anna Wangenheim (D), in a post on Facebook.

– It is so serious that if we do not build our own capacity and make investments now, I can be very worried about what the resulting consequences will be, she said in an interview with KNR the same week.

The health care system’s constitution is an unfortunate reality that we have to deal with, points out Torben M. Andersen from the Economic Council. And recruitment from third countries is a possible way out of the mess.

A proposal that Anna Wangenheim and other politicians have highlighted several times.

Unclear consequences

The Economic Council has not calculated what the economic consequences of employing personnel from third countries will be.

According to Torben M. Andersen, however, it is crucial how many nurses, midwives and others can be recruited.

– There will also be some costs involved in recruiting from third countries. For it to yield a net benefit, a certain number must be recruited, he says.

Greenland is also far from the only country that has had the idea of looking to Asia for labor, he points out.

The Philippines is the world’s largest exporter of nurses to other countries. According to health authorities in the Philippines, more than half of the country’s nurses work outside the country.

– So there are others bidding. There is increasing competition for healthcare professionals because on a global level – as more people are getting older – there is great pressure on healthcare and care professionals, says Torben M. Andersen.

In addition, there will also be some language challenges in hiring staff who do not speak Greenlandic or Danish, he notes.

– But when it’s so difficult to get others, you also have to be sober and realistic about what options are available, and this is clearly one of the options.

What about the Philippines crisis?

Another question that arises when recruiting workers from third countries is what the consequences will be for the countries from which the healthcare personnel are taken.

Torben M. Andersen’s answer to this is that it depends on which country you are recruiting from.

– There will be places in Asia where you can provide labor, and where it can also be an advantage for them, because they can potentially get a higher salary than they can get in their home country.

This is also the argument in the debate in other places where the same solution model is being looked at. For example, in Denmark, where there is also a shortage of hands in the healthcare system, and which is therefore looking to the Philippines, among others.

The problem, however, is that the Philippines, despite the country’s large export of health personnel, is itself facing a health crisis.

Midwives and nurses in Greenland

According to the nurses’ union PK, there are currently approximately 280 nurses in Greenland and around 30 midwives. However, the figures are uncertain.

Based on these figures, there are 5.5 midwives and nurses per 1000 inhabitants in Greenland.

For comparison, there are 10.5 in Denmark, 1.7 in India and 4.8 in the Philippines, according to figures from the World Bank.

This is pointed out by Nanna Maaløe, a doctor and researcher in reproductive health worldwide.

– One thing is that people should of course be free to look for jobs in other parts of the world and move if they want. But when you actively recruit from, for example, the Philippines, it undermines their health system. And there are quite strong signs of that, she points out.

She highlights that the WHO (World Health Organization) recommends reducing the use of foreign labor in the health sector, as it has negative consequences for the countries from which personnel are sourced.

– The Philippines definitely has a health system crisis, where, for example, they now employ nurses who failed their exams. Because the good ones are disappearing, says Nanna Maaløe.

One solution out of several

KNR has asked Anna Wangenheim (D) what she thinks about the consequences that her proposal to recruit from third countries has for the countries from which the workforce is taken.

In a longer written response, she acknowledges the problems that the fierce competition for health workers creates for some countries.

– In this country, we also experience recruitment and retention challenges. This is partly because in some areas, such as wages and working conditions, we have difficulty competing with the Nordic countries. These challenges will understandably be even more pronounced for less affluent countries, she writes.

Anna Wangenheim insists that the Greenland government would like to explore the possibility of recruiting healthcare personnel from more countries than is currently the case. She also writes that a collaboration has been entered into with the WHO in this regard.

– Using foreign labor is not a quick solution, but one solution out of several in the short and medium term. In the long term, the clear strategy and goal is to train more health professionals in Greenland, writes Anna Wangenheim.