Beckles: Public health system on the brink amid nursing crisis

Op­po­si­tion Leader Pen­ne­lope Beck­les has warned that Trinidad and To­ba­go’s pub­lic health sys­tem is fac­ing a cri­sis due to a grow­ing stand­off be­tween nurs­es and the Gov­ern­ment.

In a state­ment yes­ter­day, the Op­po­si­tion Leader said sev­er­al health fa­cil­i­ties were forced to close last night be­cause there were not enough nurs­es on du­ty, with stu­dent nurs­es be­ing draft­ed to fill gaps. She linked the short­ages to what she de­scribed as the Gov­ern­ment’s fail­ure to pay nurs­es what they are owed.

On Fri­day in Par­lia­ment, Beck­les ques­tioned Health Min­is­ter Dr Lack­ram Bo­doe about the Gov­ern­ment’s plan to ad­dress ten­sions with nurs­es. She said he re­spond­ed that he was un­aware of any im­passe, a stance she said is now at odds with the sit­u­a­tion on the ground.

Beck­les cit­ed re­ports of protests by the Trinidad and To­ba­go Na­tion­al Nurs­es As­so­ci­a­tion (TTNNA) over stag­nant salaries and con­cerns about pa­tient care. The protests, she said, have raised the pos­si­bil­i­ty of a na­tion­al demon­stra­tion.

The Op­po­si­tion Leader crit­i­cised the Gov­ern­ment for promis­ing a 10 per cent salary in­crease to pub­lic ser­vants while nurs­es are ef­fec­tive­ly tak­ing home less.

She ques­tioned whether the Gov­ern­ment is re­duc­ing, with­hold­ing, or claw­ing back funds owed to nurs­es, ask­ing:

“Where is the mon­ey go­ing?”

“This Gov­ern­ment can­not de­liv­er, and every sec­tor is feel­ing the strain. Now the pub­lic health sys­tem is feel­ing it,” she said, call­ing on the Prime Min­is­ter and the Min­is­ter of Health to ac­knowl­edge the cri­sis and act.

Beck­les warned that the back­bone of the health­care sys­tem is be­ing pushed to the brink while au­thor­i­ties re­main out of touch, leav­ing the peo­ple of Trinidad and To­ba­go to bear the con­se­quences.