The Neurosurgical Workforce of the Philippines

No study has comprehensively examined the delivery of neurosurgical care in the Philippines, a lower-middle-income country in Southeast Asia with a total population of 109 million. We aimed to quantify the workforce, map the distribution, and characterize the clinical practice of neurosurgeons across the 17 regions and 81 provinces of the Philippines.

An online survey was sent to all fellows of the Academy of Filipino Neurosurgeons and all graduates of neurosurgical training programs in the country. Neurosurgeons who have been in active clinical practice for at least 1 year were eligible to participate. A database of Filipino neurosurgeons was generated through personal communications, correspondence with neurosurgery departments, and accessing publicly available information. The top neurosurgical procedures were identified to estimate the overall volume of neurosurgical disease.

There are 174 neurosurgeons practicing in the Philippines or approximately one neurosurgeon for every 600 000 people. In 9 provinces, neurosurgeons were only available part-time, and 35 provinces had no neurosurgeons at all, equivalent to an underserved population of 24 million people. Among 99 survey respondents, the median numbers of neurosurgical consults and operations every month were 30 (IQR:35) and 8 (IQR:8), respectively. The top neurosurgical procedures were burr holes/craniotomy for traumatic brain injury, craniotomy for stroke, and biopsy/resection of brain tumors. There are an estimated 93 498 cases requiring essential neurosurgery every year.

Although positive trends have been observed in the number, distribution, and composition of neurosurgeons in the Philippines, there remains a large workforce deficit that needs to be addressed to provide timely, quality, and affordable neurosurgical care to the entire population.