MANILA, Philippines — Prince Charles, the heir to the British throne, has extolled the “wonderfully selfless” Filipino medical professionals for providing health-care services to the British people as their country battled the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Prince of Wales delivered a brief video message, which was shared on Twitter by British Ambassador to the Philippines Daniel Pruce on Friday, as the Philippines and United Kingdom are set to mark the 75th anniversary of their bilateral relations on July 4. The message was also part of the British Embassy’s celebration of the 95th birthday of Queen Elizabeth on Thursday.
“We are more fortunate than we perhaps realize to have many thousands of nurses and other health-care workers from the Philippines working in the United Kingdom, particularly in the National Health Service,” Prince Charles said, referring to UK’s primary health-care agency.
A special message for the Philippines from HRH The Prince of Wales, as featured in our celebration of Her Majesty The Queen’s 95th Birthday.
Watch here: https://t.co/ZQ5oCwjFY2
Catch the replay on @ANCALERTS on 13 June, 7PM PHT.#UKPHCloserAt75 #QueensBirthdayPH2021 pic.twitter.com/rQA9lFWL25— Daniel Pruce 🇬🇧 (@DanielPruce) June 11, 2021
“To these wonderfully selfless people, I wanted to offer my most heartfelt gratitude for the outstanding care and comfort you give to your patients,” he said.
“You have made a truly remarkable contribution to the health and well-being of so many people across the country at such a difficult time,” he added.
The British royalty said the relationship between the two countries has been “stronger than ever” as more than 30,000 Filipinos are now currently employed in the National Health Service (NHS).
“At a time when we have faced the unprecedented challenges of the coronavirus, those links have provided the foundation for us to work together towards a better future,” Charles said.
When the United Kingdom kicked off its Covid-19 vaccination in December 2020, it was a Filipino nurse who administered the very first jab to a 90-year-old British grandmother.
“A fantastic moment! And great to see that the vaccine is administered by Nurse May Parsons from the Philippines—one of the many thousands of Filipino health-care workers making such an enormous contribution to the #NHS,” Pruce said in a tweet.
The Department of Labor and Employment had previously offered to send thousands of Filipino nurses to Europe, particularly the United Kingdom and Germany, in exchange for COVID-19 vaccines, an offer that the British government had declined.
The United Kingdom is a major contributor to the global vaccine pool Covax facility, which provides vaccines to many countries, including the Philippines. INQ