Pay nurses and teachers better and they will stay

Dec 29, 2016 Letters

Dear Editor,
A recent article in Kaieteur Newspaper claimed that the Minister of Health, Dr. Norton, has stated that Guyana might soon have to “import” nurses to fill the void in our health service system.

There are two concerns in taking this expensive route. First, the void exists because locally trained nurses, like teachers, are fleeing the country and giving their services to other more rewarding nations. My bet is that these imported nurses will be paid more than we do our local nurses.

In courting nurses from abroad, our government would be in direct competition with developed countries (like the U.S., U.K., and Canada) which are actively courting nurses from developed countries to fill their own voids. These countries have deeper pockets which mean we would have to offer pretty high salaries to lure nurses here.

And why are we not rewarding our Guyanese nurses significantly to encourage them to continue serving our country? I personally know of a few nurses who have plans to migrate because of the poor pay and compensation offered by our local health services.

A significant raise in salary and paving the way for nurses to own cars and homes would certainly plug the perpetual leak of our medical talents. The same problem exists in education where our trained teachers are in the islands serving our sister nations after being trained by our government.

Every time I see a photo of a graduating class in nursing or teaching I wonder how many of them will still be working in Guyana five years down the road. We have to compensate our professionals adequately to encourage them to remain at home, rather than shipping in expensive foreign talent. Charity begins at home.
Malcolm Alves

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