By Harry Mottram: The Mayor of Bath, Councillor Dine Romero held a reception for some of the workers at the RUH who hail from the Philippines. Originally organised by former Mayor Rob Appleyard the event was to celebrate and to acknowledge the valuable contribution these people make to the NHS and the RUH in particular. The Mayor said: “These are just a portion of people from the Philippines who have chosen to work here and use their expert knowledge and skills.”
In a Parliamentary report figures showed that last year there were 34,652 NHS workers from the Philippines – second only to India with 60,533 staff members of the NHS while in third place is Nigeria, followed by Ireland and Poland. There are more than one million UK citizens on the payroll of the NHS – usually described as the largest employer in Europe.
The fact that English is the official language together with Philipino gives a clue to why so many health workers are are drawn to the UK – while Spanish is a recognised language – and not an official one.
The Philippines was named after the Spanish King Philip II when it was colonised by Spain – with the result that it is Asia’s only major predominantly Catholic nation – set as it is in the South China Sea. With more than 109 million people the archipelago is larger than the UK. The official Philippines tourist website has more information at https://beta.tourism.gov.ph/