Employers from the Middle East, US and UK are looking for Filipinos to fill over 500 job vacancies in the healthcare sector, according to the Dubai-based organizers of Healthcare Recruitment Philippines, a job fair scheduled to take place in Manila this summer. Some 30 public and private hospitals from the US, UK, UAE and other GCC countries will be coming to Manila to attend the event and meet healthcare professionals who are looking for work placements abroad. This is the first time that Informa Life Sciences Exhibitions, the organizers of Healthcare Recruitment Philippines, have staged a job fair in Manila. "We have had great success in organizing the Healthcare Recruitment & Training Fair in Abu Dhabi, and wanted to carry this forward into select markets abroad. The Philippines is one of the top exporters of nurses worldwide, making it an ideal location for international hospitals to source and recruit staff," said Simon Page, Managing Director at Informa Life Sciences Exhibitions. The healthcare facilities participating in the event are looking to meet nurses from a variety of specializations, including in-patient, ambulatory, and intensive care, alongside other allied health professionals, healthcare administrative staff and clinicians. Over the coming years, the UAE will need an influx of medical personnel to meet its growing demand for high-quality medical services. The Abu Dhabi Health Authority (HAAD) has projected that the capital city will need 4,800 doctors and 13,000 new nurses by 2022, while the Director General of the Dubai Health Authority (DHA) has estimated that Dubai will need 7,323 doctors and 8,510 nurses over the next decade. Across the wider Gulf region, the same staffing shortages persist in the healthcare sector. According to experts, the average ratio of physicians (including dentists) and nurses per 10,000 people in the GCC region is one to twenty-six and forty-nine, respectively, which is insufficient to meet the growing demand for healthcare services. The American Nurses Association, meanwhile, predicts that the United States will need another one million registered nurses to fill vacancies until 2020. They added that this lack of staff is expected to worsen by 2030, driven partly by the increase in people living with multiple chronic conditions such as obesity and diabetes. In the UK, experts estimate the short-term requirement for nurses alone to stand at 15,000, driven by chronic shortages as well as the British departure from the European Union, which has prompted many European nurses to return to their home nations. "Healthcare Recruitment Philippines provides medical professionals in the Philippines a convenient and ideal venue to look for job placements in key markets abroad, where there are already large groups of Filipino migrant workers. If their choice is the Middle East, we have vacancies available: similarly, if they are looking to the West, we also have opportunities in that part of the world too," added Page. Healthcare Recruitment Philippines will take place on 27-28 July 2017 at the Marriott Hotel, Manila, Philippines. Interested healthcare professionals should register online to attend for free at www.healthrecruitmentfair.com/philippines. — SG
