By Juan MercadoInquirerLast updated 00:22am (Mla time) 09/25/2007
THE EYE CLINIC secretary on the line apologized, saying: "Sorry, sir. But we can't set an appointment. Your doctor migrated to the US. And her substitute isn't here yet."
Here was a small sign of the medical system's erosion due to the unstanched exodus of care-givers. Starting in the 1960s, departures included nurses, midwives and specialists in pediatrics, internal medicine to obstetrics and oncology, according to Jaime Galvez Tan, Fernando Sanchez and Virginia Balanon. "A health disaster is impending if nothing drastic is done."
That will take some doing. Eight million Filipinos now live and work in over 190 countries, and about 3,000 leave every day. They have midwifed today's "culture of migration...which permeates Filipino society," Maruja Asis of Scalabrini Migration Center observes. [Read more]
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