CEBU CITY – Operation Smile’s all-female team of volunteer cleft care professionals from 12 countries launched in Cebu City the “Women in Medicine” (WIM) in Asia campaign and called for more women to join the healthcare workforce worldwide during the six-day educational and medical mission they mounted in the City from October 10-15 this year.
“Operation Smile is mounting this novel medical and educational mission as part of our new ‘Women in Medicine’ initiative aimed at inspiring more women to pursue medical careers and take on leadership roles to help address the global shortage, Operation Smile co-founder and president, Kathleen Magee said in a press conference here.
Magee, with the 60-volunteer multinational team flew to Cebu City to meet with the Operation Smile-Philippines Team to conduct a five-day of free surgeries on 59 children with cleft lip and cleft palate at the Cebu City Medical Center (CCMC) and a one-day forum on women empowerment in the health profession.
The team was composed of plastic surgeons, anesthesiologists, pediatricians, dentists, speech therapists, child life specialists and biomedical technicians from the U.S., Vietnam, Australia, Guatemala, Colombia, Peru, Honduras Sweden, UK, Egypt, South Africa, and the Philippines.
“What sets this year’s mission apart from all the previous ones is the Operation Smile team is composed solely of women volunteers, who will take part in an educational forum on women empowerment prior to the start of the cleft care activities,” Magee added.
According to Magee, ‘Women in Medicine’ is a new global initiative that seeks to encourage women to join the healthcare profession, and empower them to take leadership roles in their respective fields.
It is also being piloted in Africa and in South America. The program was created in response to the call of the World Health Organization (WHO) for women to drive the transformational change in global health care, Magee added.
Magee revealed that women in the medical sector comprise 70 percent of health professionals but occupy only 25 percent of leadership positions. WHO had said the world needs 18 million more health professionals, while the Philippines has a gap of 290,000 healthcare professionals to achieve universal health coverage.
Julia Esberge, coordinator of WIM for Operation Smile-PH said that there is a desperate need for women to enter the healthcare workforce. Operation Smile-PH is an avenue to help inspire, educate and enjoin women to be part of the women in the medical and healthcare workforce. Esberge is a scholar of Operation Smile soon to become a doctor.
Dr. May de Guzman, a Filipino plastic surgeon and a volunteer of Operation Smile in all its medical mission in the Philippines and in many places in the world urged women to join the medical and in the healthcare services.
De Guzman said, working with women doctors everywhere is very helpful for everyone and always a wonderful experience, including the mentoring and support which are always present in many of Operation Smile’s missions.
“Women are natural in multi-tasking, compassionate and nurturers. The healthcare services need all these skills and capabilities that most women can provide,” de Guzman said.
De Guzman said, the country needs 290,000 healthcare professionals but, data from the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) showed the country produces around 800,000 college graduates annually, 60 percent of them women, less than one percent end up working as health care workers, said the Human Resources for Health Network.
The Philippines today is lacking in the healthcare professionals with one nurse that can only take care of 10 patience. For the last five years now, there are more doctors but less nurses and this is also a global problem, not only in the Philippines, De Guzman said.
“The bottom line is the salary cap. If the salaries in the medical field here are of interesting rates, then nurses, medical technologists and other medical professionals probably would not seek employment abroad,” de Guzman remarked.
She added that the Philippine government must look into this gap, there must be greater motivation as part of the government’s initiative to build and create a health center where women in medicine can flourish and be part of the growing development medical workforce here.
Operation Smile-PH and WIM partnership
Operation Smile has been conducting cleft care missions in Cebu since 1998 in partnership with the province’s leading NGO, the Mariquita Salimbangon Yeong or MSY Charitable Foundation, Inc. (MSYCFI) and has treated over 7,000 children with these congenital deformities to date.
Dr. Vivina Chiu, a pediatrician and representative of the MSYCFI in Cebu said that the organization has been partners with Operation Smile in Cebu that has catered to more than 7,000 individuals with cleft palate deformities and has continuously extended its services in Mindanao.
“MSYCFI is Operation Smile in Cebu. Aside from surgeries, we also handle post-operative follow-up services and six months later, they are still being monitored. The Operation Smile Team is one of the best in the world. They also do speech therapy, dentists are also part of team,” Chiu beamed.
Chiu cited that one out of 600 children are born are with cleft and other palate deformities, adding that the Cebu team also included genetics research to improve the kids’ recovery and this is the why we are doing facial repair with Women/ cleft lip and palate.
According to Chiu, for this year’s Operation Smile mission in Cebu has the full support of the local government unit led by City mayor Michael Rama and his council, giving the CCMC as the hospital venue for the OPS surgical program.
Magee said, she came to the Philippines 40 years ago as a volunteer healthcare worker, being a nurse. “Filipino culture is so giving. We had a solid group of women who are always ready to go for Operation Smile’s missions in the country. We are going to push the rest to make this thing sustainable now on its 23 years in healthcare for cleft lip/palate,” she concluded and thanked everyone who were part of the mission. (Photos: Operation Smile/mbcnewman)
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