Rishard Khan

rishard.khan@guardian.co.tt

The T&T Reg­is­tered Nurs­es’ As­so­ci­a­tion (TTR­NA) can­celled its protest ac­tion sched­uled for to­day in light of yes­ter­day’s un­rest and is ad­vis­ing nurs­es as­signed to health fa­cil­i­ties in “known hotspots” to stay away from work for their safe­ty.

The TTR­NA con­vened an emer­gency meet­ing and pres­i­dent Idi Stu­art said the de­ci­sion to tem­porar­i­ly hold off on their protest ac­tion.

“We know the mem­ber­ship would be dis­ap­point­ed but we can­not place our mem­ber­ship at risk in the city of Port-of-Spain in light of the un­rest that is tak­ing place,” he said.

Stu­art said a de­ci­sion was al­so tak­en to ad­vise nurs­ing staff are as­signed to “known hotspot ar­eas,” es­pe­cial­ly in the ar­eas un­der

the North West­ern Health Au­thor­i­ty (NWRHA) and North Cen­tral Health Au­thor­i­ty (NCRHA), to stay home.

“We are telling our mem­bers once you are as­signed to those fa­cil­i­ties, do not and un­der no cir­cum­stance go to work to­mor­row at those health fa­cil­i­ties. If you are in a po­si­tion to make it to the head of­fice of the North West Health Au­thor­i­ty or the North Cen­tral, then make your way to the head of­fice and let them re­as­sign you to an­oth­er lo­ca­tion,” he said.

Stu­art does not be­lieve this move will com­pro­mise the coun­try’s med­ical re­sponse to any in­juries that could arise if the un­rest con­tin­ues to­day.

“Any ma­jor ac­ci­dent, in­jury, don’t go to the health fa­cil­i­ties. They go to the hos­pi­tals and our mem­bers are op­er­at­ing there as nor­mal,” he said.

Yes­ter­day, health cen­tres across the NWRHA were closed to pro­tect staff, ex­cept for the Mar­aval and Wood­brook health cen­tres whose op­er­at­ing hours were ex­tend­ed from 4 pm to 8 pm.