MikeLigalig.com

Greetings Ladies and Gentlemen,

I would like to talk about the instance of the Filipino Medical Diaspora. We all know that there are thousands upon thousands of Filipino Nurses as well as Doctors and other allied health professionals that are waiting to go abroad. To fill in the ranks of the much needed medical help/work in foreign hospitals, in the process augmenting their medical work force.

There is a multipotency in pursuing a life abroad for many Filipino Medical Professionals; namely to provide a better life and living for themselves, their family as well as to provide financial support to extended relatives back in the philippines. In the medical field, we have numerous stories of kababayans leaving the motherland in search for greener pastures, in search to provide a better life for their children and their families than what was available in the home country.

In the hospital that I am in currently in Newark, NJ, I have befriend a recent graduate of the University of the East College of Medicine. He graduated this past May 2009 with his M.D, and is currently doing rotations with our group, as well as telling me of the situation on the ground in the Philippines. He tells that the very few Filipinos who are able to score high in the medical boards (philippine and American) are selected by the medical recruiters, the rest, who fall in the fray, are left to wait for a medical match, or are forced to apply for medical positions in other foreign countries (UK, Middle East, Europe, etc). The rest, are driven to such desperation that some doctors take an advanced 10 month nursing program and look for nursing positions abroad; namely the US and Canada.

Sam, a fellow colleague and a new friend, tells me of the required 1 month Community medicine elective that U of E enforces. He was sent to Antipolo on his last year to serve with the local public health physician in that region and performed thousands of circumcisions, general labor, as well as treated the plethora of tuberculosis, kwashiorkor, marasmus, malarial and dengue incidents. Exhausting and life changing, he says. "You come out of this with a newfound respect for the resiliency of the common man, and the necessity of general public health in the Philippines."

I was amazed by his experience. Driven, i inquired more stories.

I do feel as if the Philippines is giving away too many of its best and brightest doctors, nurses, physical therapists. I cannot help but feel guilty. Guilty in the way that I have not been able to visit the country and do my share, my lions' share of community medicine.

I have decided, that, when I am finished with residency. I would like to start, with proper help and networking with other like minded medical professionals and investment partners, would like to start a Free Medical Clinic/ Hospital in the Philippines. Somewhere around the Visayas. The gravity of the situation in the Philippines is powerful to hear about. The destitution and the medical disparity in my motherland is is great. People, the Filipino people are dying of kwashiorkor (protein malnutrition), marasmus (total nutritional deficiency / starvation) as well as dengue and malaria. All of these cases are unheard of in the western world, particularly in the united states and western europe. These are all preventables.

I feel as if the Diaspora has facilitated this situation. There is no one left, the best of the best, that is, that is willing to stay in their beloved Philippine Motherland.

This must be curved.




Sincerely,
A. Lorenzo Lucino Jr.
3rd Year Medical Intern
Newark, NJ.

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