NURSES UNDER PRESSURE AS COVID RUNS WILD by Rae Samuel
Post date: May 08, 2021 4:52:23 PM
As the Covid crisis deepens, as uncertainty lingers and fears remain, workers and the wider national community must stand behind Idi Stuart, head of Trinidad and Tobago Registered Nurses Association (TTRNA). In his latest virtual media conference, 06 May, on TV 6, Stuart brought a clarity and a context to the issue that the long running Government media briefings lack. While Covid 19 has emerged only in the last 15 months, its impact could have been mitigated if certain operational structures and working conditions were in place. For almost 2 years now Stuart has been leading the health sector in a struggle for regularisation of the professional set up.
We in the National Workers Union (NWU have followed his ongoing calls to the Ministry of Health for consultation about the staffing and operations of the Nursing Council, the body that oversees professional matters. Health personnel have since 2019 protested in Port of Spain, Mount Hope, Sangre Grande, Point Fortin and Tobago. They have been warning about poor administrative practices, lack of meaningful consultations, horrible industrial relations and lack of resources. Stuart pointed out in the interview that for two years now student nurses have not been paid stipends. "They are working students” he said. Two classes have not moved forward. This means that the critical staff shortages normally faced, have truly exacerbated the Covid crisis. Were they available, he pointed out, they could have helped with the "backroom work'' i.e. testing and other preliminary work.
As the cases mount Port of Spain General is becoming a 'tent city' Industrial relations in the regional corporations are notorious. Given that this is a sector that requires trained professionals, charged with nation's health care, one would imagine that they would be given the highest considerations re: terms and conditions of service. The opposite prevails with short term contracts being the norm. With that type of instability being standard, it comes as no surprise that many of our health care personnel migrate.
“If you are offered a 3000 pound signing bonus why would you stay here? That is just the bonus! The salaries would be better than anything on offer'' he pointed out. It is well known that our health professionals are forever scouted by agencies and institutions abroad.TV6 routinely interviews a Trinbagonian nurse who holds a senior position in a Saudi Arabian hospital. What many forget, what the mainstream media does not highlight, what the ''jacket and tie '' crowd in the media briefings does not mention is this - that these front line workers, exposed daily to the virus, leave to go home to their families exhausted after double shifts sometimes.
Let us remember the level of trauma they are experiencing constantly. Like everyone else they face the domestic challenges Covid has brought on. As if to remind us how inhumane the administration can be, he told of a nurse who underwent major surgery and had her salary stopped while in hospital. What we do not want, if it is not already happening, is that the medical personnel have to choose who is going to treated and who is going to be left to die because of lack of resources.
Idi Stuart
According to 2016 official statistics, in the North Central Regional Health Authority there were, at least, six hundred and fifty vacancies to be filled, and in the South West Regional Health Authority (SWRHA) there were three thousand four hundred and thirteen (3413) vacancies, nine hundred and ninety-two (992) of them being nursing vacancies. At the San Fernando General Hospital, the nurse to patient ratio was close to one nurse to twenty-two patients and this has been made worse since the advent of the Teaching Hospital. This is unsafe and puts both nurse and patient at risk. (Editor's Note)
The host asked if comparing what is going on in India and Brazil might be stretching it. He showed that analyses are made relative to cases and size of population i.e. deaths/cases per thousand. One recalls around this time last year when rubbish was being put out that we were in the top 10 in the world, according to Oxford university. Stuart went so far as to call for Cuban nurses to be brought back to Trinidad and Tobago. "Yes they are better paid than local staff but we have to address the crisis.''.
TTNRA is giving the story behind the multiple media briefings, regular sound bites and photo ops/'jabs'. Covid is not going away soon and it is the health personnel, on the front line who find themselves under-resourced, ill equipped and asked to go the extra perilous mile; without access to the splendid isolation/quarantine that heads of government and business instantly enjoy.
We must give our constant support. Our lives are/may soon be literally in their overworked hands.