Latest update January 10th, 2025 5:00 AM
Latest News
- Jagdeo-led PPP supported tax waivers to Exxon without seeing terms of oil contract
- President stomps Nandlall’s plan to appeal $24M awarded to Quindon Bacchus’ family
- More than 46,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Israel-Hamas war, officials say
- Benn flags citizens lax approach to fire safety
- Chinese man missing after falling off new harbour bridge
Government may have to ‘steal’ nurses to staff new hospitals – Jagdeo
Kaieteur News – The government of Guyana may very well have to ‘steal’ nurses with attractive recruitment packages to be able to adequately staff the new hospitals that are to be built in the future. This revelation was made by the Vice President (VP) Bharrat Jagdeo at his weekly press conference on Thursday afternoon.
Vice President, Bharrat Jagdeo
Jagdeo was asked by the media if he thought “the government would be able to reverse the tide with respect to the bleeding of nurses that we have been seeing over the years?”
In response, the Vice President said, “The same way our nurses are being stolen, I think we may have to do some of this policy ourselves. You have some registered nurses around the world, that’s how we may be able to recruit too, at pretty competitive rates. Nearly competitive with what we pay a nurse now here and we have to explore all sorts of things to keep our hospitals going.”
The VP explained that the government would have to “bring in people”.
“We have some people now from other parts (of the world but), we should in the outer years, when our income levels go up significantly when you can sustain it from a predictable flow, we should be able to do that,” Jagdeo explained.
According to Jagdeo, the government is looking to build 12 new hospitals and replace six in order for Guyanese to have easy access to primary healthcare and efficient services.
The Minister of Health, Dr. Frank Anthony had said at the sod turning for the New Amsterdam Hospital that currently, there are 1500 persons enrolled in a hybrid nursing training programme and they are also looking to train another 1000 nursing assistants to be able to fill the gaps in the health sector.
Further, President Irfaan Ali last year acknowledged the shortage of nurses in the local health system and indicated that his government is engaging Cuba on having nurses from there come into Guyana’s workforce.
While answering questions from the media, the Head of State said that one of the main issues facing the Caribbean region is the outward movement of nurses and health workers.
According to him places such as Canada, the United Kingdom, the United States of America and Europe are facing the same shortages, hence now the world is on an active drive of recruiting nurses all over.
“…When I spoke to the administration of the Georgetown Public Hospital, it was said they now have hundreds of nurses short of their full complement,” he related.
In dealing with the issue, the President said his government is moving decisively on a number of training programmes for nurses and bringing more nurses into the system.
“So we have to find the immediate measure, the medium term and long term. The medium and long term is to train and retrain and train more than the capacity that you need but the immediate term for example for nurses is to have nurses come into the system from external sources,” he explained.
In terms of the medium- and long-term approach, President Ali said in his statement that they have a programme now for anyone with the entry requirement to pursue nursing.
“We are developing a hybrid nursing programme to increase training of nurses from about 150 to 200 per year to now enable us to train between 1000 to 1500 nurses per year. This programme has already started and not only the training of nurses, we are also working on specialized areas for nurses,” he disclosed.
While training is being offered to get nurses in the system, the President said they are also looking at the present situation where there is a shortage. At that time, the President disclosed that he had discussions with the Cuban Ambassador to have nurses come into the country.
“Up to this morning, I had a long discussion with the Ambassador to see if he can get Cuban nurses to come into the system now, in the immediate period to help to fill that gap because of the tremendous shortage that we have,” the President shared yesterday.
Similar Articles
THE BLUNT OF THE DAY
Sports
Features/Columnists
The unconscionable terms of the PSA establish a case for renegotiation
The unconscionable terms, The unconscionable terms Peeping Tom… Kaieteur News- The Production Sharing Agreement (PSA)... more
Forget Begging Rich Nations: Caribbean Countries Should Act to Save Themselves
By Sir Ronald Sanders Kaieteur News- It has long been evident that the world’s richest nations, especially those responsible... more
Weekend Cartoon
