A PUBLIC-PRIVATE partnership (PPP) project in health care is being rolled out in the Philippines to increase geriatric nurses in the country and establish the sunrise industry of international-retirement migration here.
Public and private sectors from the Philippines and Germany will collaborate in establishing a geriatric curriculum for the Philippine health-care education system that will develop a vocational training module based on the German-geriatric education model.
The PPP project is led by Germany’s pro civitate Rain Tree Care and KFW DEG, in partnership with the Department of Health, Commission on Higher Education and Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (Tesda).
In a press conference in Makati City on Monday, Rain Tree Care Managing Director Marc Daubenbuechel estimated there will be 14 million senior citizens in the Philippines between 2017 and 2040.
The figure will be 11.5 percent of the country’s population.
Daubenbuechel said in 2015, the country had 7.5 million people aged 60 years and above.
However, the Philippines is lacking geriatric practitioners as no geriatric curriculum exists, while there are only 10 operators of 25 elderly-care facilities nationwide.
With the PPP project for geriatric curriculum, at least 100 geriatric nurses will be trained and certified by December 2018, the conclusion of the project.
The project also targets to have more trainers and clinical instructors to multiply the knowledge on geriatrics.
The project aims to establish a geriatric course in Tesda, as well as incorporate the module in nursing courses, giving nursing students the choice to specialize in geriatric nursing.
Daubenbuechel said the Philippines can be the hub for nursing-care tourism, as retirees from other countries, particularly from western countries, eye retirement in tropical countries, like the Philippines.
He said that, assuming there will be 10,000 private rooms for geriatric nursing by 2022, the industry can contribute P9.6 billion, or about $230 million, to the economy.
