We have no choice!

Mar 27, 2024 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

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Kaieteur News – A big hue and cry is being raised about the government’s decision to permit a firm to recruit nurses from Bangladesh. This decision has sparked a cacophony of protests and concerns from various quarters, with some individuals seemingly waking up from a Rip Van Winkle-esque slumber to decry the move.

However, it appears that reason and good sense has been dispensed with and has been replaced by the usual conspiracy theories and claims about nurses in Guyana not being paid enough. Instead of wild excursions into the irrational, it is better to try to delve deeper into the underlying reasons behind the decision to import nurses.

Firstly, let us dispel the presumed notion that importing nurses is a novel concept in Guyana. Contrary to the alarmist rhetoric permeating the discourse, the practice of importing medical professionals, including nurses, has been commonplace for over a decade. Both the PPP/C and the APNU+AFC governments have allowed the importation of nurses from India and Cuba. Private hospitals, in particular, have been sourcing nurses from countries like Cuba and India to meet their staffing needs.

These imported nurses have exhibited a commendable and work ethic, often outperforming their local counterparts. Their contribution to the healthcare sector cannot be overstated, especially considering the significant shortfall in nursing staff across various healthcare facilities. The Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) alone faces a shortage of hundreds of 600 nurses. Last year, some 146 nurses resigned from that institution leading to a shortage of nurses, a problem that plagues the entire health sector.

The root cause of this shortage lies not so much in domestic factors but in the pull factors from overseas. Guyana, like many developing nations, grapples with the challenge of retaining healthcare professionals in the face of lucrative opportunities abroad. The allure of higher salaries and better living standards in countries like the United Kingdom often leads to a mass exodus of skilled personnel, further exacerbating the staffing crisis. In the United Kingdom, a registered nurse can earn at a minimum more than US$3,300 per month, without overtime. Guyana cannot match that level of wages and that is why so many of our nurses have been leaving.

Even if the government were to allocate substantial resources to raise nurses’ salaries, the fundamental pull factors driving emigration would persist. Thus, the recourse to recruiting from countries with lower per capita incomes than ours becomes a practical and logical solution to address nursing shortages. The ongoing expansion of Guyana’s healthcare infrastructure, including the construction of 12 new hospitals will worsen the nurses’ shortages. Training more local nurses is not a solution. The faster you train them, the faster they leave and there is only so many persons with the required academic subjects and who are interested in a profession or nurses that can be trained.

Guyana therefore has to look beyond the Cuba and India becomes imperative.  Bangladesh is one country where you can recruit experienced nurses cheaply and who have some proficiency in English. Beyond the healthcare sector, Guyana confronts broader challenges associated with labour shortages, particularly in the construction industry. The surge in construction sector has created a massive need for labour in that sector. Even with the influx of Venezuelan workers, there is still today an acute shortage of labour in the country. As such, Guyana has to move towards importing more labour, including soon for the new hotels that are going to be built. We have no choice.

Even the media is feeling the labour crunch. The government has been snatching up media operatives from the private media. They are wooing them away with higher salaries which the private media companies cannot afford to match. We might soon therefore have to start importing media workers from across the Caribbean.

Rather therefore than succumbing to conspiracy theories, insecurities or misplaced apprehensions, critics should try to appreciate the problems facing labour in Guyana. There is no other solution than to move towards importing labour. The possibility of having nurses from Bangladesh should not generate fears. The reality is that most oil-producing countries outside of the West, do relay heavy on imported and cheap labour and there is no reason why Guyana should not do the same. These workers are not stealing anyone jobs. They are filling a shortage which cannot be filled locally. And they are not coming here as immigrants. The nurses are usually given tow-year contracts after which they either return to their country or join the caravan to the United States of Europe to work in those countries.

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and beliefs of this newspaper and its affiliates.)

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• Bangladesh, decry, individuals, Peeping Tom, quarters

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