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GPHC Chairman amplifies need for improved nurses’ wages
GPHC’s Board Chairman, Dr. Carl ‘Max’ Hanoman.
Nurses at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) are stretched to the limit.
This state of affairs was on Tuesday amplified by Chairman of the hospital’s Board of Directors, Dr. Carl ‘Max’ Hanoman, who was at the time addressing a forum to recognise nurses who have been performing laudably at the GPHC.
The forum was one that celebrated a new initiative ‘100 awesome nurses’ which seeks to recognise those within the nursing profession who have played an equally professional and caring role in the lives of sickle cell patients.
While the aim is to honour 100 nurses, Dr. Hanoman questioned “what about the other 500 nurses?” He is confident that the other nurses attached to the GPHC are also awesome, even as he sought to put into context the word awesome.
“If my nurses are going to be professionals and have a human approach, I am going to say awesome is in its context. They must be loving and caring; that must be the approach of the Georgetown Hospital.”
But according to Dr. Hanoman, a practicing doctor for many years, who was recently appointed Chairman of the Hospital’s Board of Directors, although there are some nurses who may not be readily classified as ‘awesome’, “we cannot complain about the majority of those within the nursing profession at GPHC”.
He qualified the notion that nurses at the institution are stretched to the limit, by pointing out that those who work on the wards are often faced with the job of eight nurses.
However, Dr. Hanoman observed that the remuneration for these nurses is usually not taken into consideration. “Nothing is done for these nurses…you question their resilience; you ask me to improve health systems’ resilience, but how can we improve it if we don’t improve the resilience of the nurses.”
Dr. Hanoman added, “how do we improve resilience…it has to have something to do with the care and benefits of their (nurses’) family.”
According to the Board Chairman, unless deliberate efforts are made to address the wages issues and the care and benefits of the nurses “don’t complain that they are not doing well…”
“Have we ever looked at the remuneration for these nurses?” Dr. Hanoman questioned. “Let civil society out there create a fund for our nurses to give them something back. They are here when you come in and they are here when you leave. How can you forget them?”
Dr. Hanoman’s remarks about the nurses come at a time when there seemingly exists a struggle as it relates to the placement of nurses within the GPHC.
Kaieteur News has been reliably informed that this state of affairs has tremendously impacted the operation of the Accident and Emergency Department (A&E), which is usually hard pressed on an adequate complement of nurses on a daily basis.
Reports suggest that there are some officials at the health facilities who are opposed to the placement of the recommended number of nurses to allow for the effective functioning of the A&E.
It has also been alleged that nurses are even being deprived training that has been approved at the level of Cabinet.
Just last week Minister of State, Joseph Harmon, revealed that as part of government’s effort to improve emergency medical services, nurses of the GPHC will be exposed to strategic emergency medical service training.
The training, according to Harmon, will arguably be the first of its type in the entire Caribbean.
But a source close to the operation of the hospital divulged that there are individuals who are already opposed to the nurses being exposed to the training.
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