JENSEN LA VENDE

Se­nior Re­porter

jensen.lavende@guardian.co.tt

Health Min­is­ter Dr Lack­ram Bo­doe says while nurs­es’ ac­tions has not im­pact­ed health­care, Re­gion­al Health Au­thor­i­ties (RHAs) have ini­ti­at­ed their con­tin­gency plans to ad­dress any pos­si­ble fall­out.

Amidst de­mands for in­creased wages and a mas­sive march through Port-of-Spain on April 10, nurs­es be­gan a work-to-rule on April 28, main­tain­ing a one-to-six pa­tient ra­tio.

The nurs­es were al­so trig­gered by a de­ci­sion by the North Cen­tral Re­gion­al Health Au­thor­i­ty (NCRHA) to re­duce nurs­es’ over­time rates from $75 to $60 an hour.

Re­spond­ing in Sen­ate yes­ter­day to ques­tions posed by Op­po­si­tion Sen­a­tor Dr Amery Browne on the im­pact of the nurs­es’ ac­tions on the health in­sti­tu­tions, Dr Bo­doe said there has been none.

“I am ad­vised that to safe­guard the con­ti­nu­ity and qual­i­ty of pa­tient care, all re­gion­al health au­thor­i­ties prompt­ly ac­ti­vat­ed their planned con­tin­gency mea­sures. These in­clud­ed the re­as­sign­ment of staff, strate­gic de­ploy­ment of nurs­ing per­son­nel and tar­get­ed ad­just­ments to du­ty ros­ters.”

Bo­doe said that the is­sue that trig­gered nurs­es’ ac­tion is cur­rent­ly “un­der con­sid­er­a­tion at this time,” in re­sponse to the sup­ple­men­tal ques­tion by Dr Browne ask­ing if the mat­ter was set­tled.

Bo­doe added: “Mr Pres­i­dent, to­day is In­ter­na­tion­al Nurs­es Day, and I take the op­por­tu­ni­ty to ex­tend sin­cere ap­pre­ci­a­tion to nurs­es for their un­wa­ver­ing ded­i­ca­tion, pro­fes­sion­al­ism and com­pas­sion in car­ing for our pop­u­la­tion.”

His com­ments came hours af­ter Trinidad and To­ba­go Na­tion­al Nurs­es’ As­so­ci­a­tion (TTNNA) pres­i­dent Idi Stu­art spoke on CNC3’s The Morn­ing Brew, say­ing this year’s In­ter­na­tion­al Nurs­es Day is the worst in the coun­try’s his­to­ry.

Stu­art said nurs­es at the NCRHA are con­sid­er­ably the most de­val­ued batch of nurs­es, claim­ing nurs­es are re­sign­ing with­in weeks of be­ing em­ployed.

He en­cour­aged all nurs­es to ral­ly around their col­leagues em­ployed at the NCRHA and when the time comes, sup­port them in protest.

Stu­art added that giv­en the lack of mean­ing­ful re­sponse from Bo­doe re­gard­ing nurs­es’ is­sues, es­pe­cial­ly at the NCRHA, he may have to take the mat­ter to Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar and call on her to re­move Dr Gopeesingh.

Calls and mes­sages to Dr Gopeesingh up to press time went unan­swered.