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JENSEN LA VENDE

Se­nior Re­porter

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Trinidad and To­ba­go Na­tion­al Nurs­es As­so­ci­a­tion (TTNNA) in­dus­tri­al re­la­tions of­fi­cer Leti­tia Stephens says the cur­rent sick­out ac­tion by nurs­es could be end­ed if man­age­ment at the Er­ic Williams Med­ical Sci­ences Com­plex (EWM­SC) in Mt Hope meets with and speaks re­spect­ful­ly with nurs­es.

Stephens says the nar­ra­tive paint­ed by the EWM­SC man­age­ment is not fair and the main griev­ance nurs­es are fac­ing is on­go­ing staffing is­sues.

“They need to open di­a­logue and be hon­est and trans­par­ent and speak to the nurs­es. I think that is where they are fail­ing. If they would speak to them (nurs­es), reach out to them gen­uine­ly and un­der­stand what the sit­u­a­tion is, we may have that re­lief com­ing as soon as pos­si­ble,” Stephens told Guardian me­dia yes­ter­day, as the strike ac­tion dragged on for a third day.

“I think that’s where the is­sue is. I think there is a lev­el of ar­ro­gance and ego at play and no one is study­ing the nurs­es. I would like to say em­phat­i­cal­ly, it’s not the as­so­ci­a­tion that called this strike.”

Nurs­es, who are deemed es­sen­tial work­ers, are not al­lowed to take in­dus­tri­al ac­tion.

The TTNNA has been at odds with EWM­SC chair­man Dr Tim Gopeesingh over a re­cent de­ci­sion to re­duce over­time rates known as pool pay. The nurs­es al­so ar­gue that the fa­cil­i­ty is un­der­staffed, work­ers are over­worked and their re­mu­ner­a­tion pack­ages are out­dat­ed, giv­en that they still re­ceive 2013 salary ranges.

In a me­dia re­lease on Sat­ur­day, the North Cen­tral Re­gion­al Health Au­thor­i­ty (NCRHA) jus­ti­fied the de­ci­sion to re­duce the over­time rates from $75 hourly to $60, say­ing the NCRHA was pay­ing rates against the ad­vice of the Chief Per­son­nel Of­fi­cer. It said the rate was ad­just­ed to be in com­pli­ance with oth­er re­gion­al health au­thor­i­ties, re­sult­ing in staff at EWM­SC fail­ing to re­port to work.

Stephens yes­ter­day it was more than an is­sue of fi­nances, as the over­time was ev­i­dence of man­pow­er short­age, par­tic­u­lar­ly at night, that had not been ad­dressed for years.

“The NCRHA has been chron­i­cal­ly short-staffed for years. And pool has been used to sup­ple­ment the staffing on the wards. The nurs­es have noth­ing to do with any ex­or­bi­tant pool fees be­cause they were al­ready short-staffed in the fa­cil­i­ty. So if they (man­age­ment) would gen­uine­ly sit down and talk with the nurs­es and come up with vi­able so­lu­tions in­stead of fil­ter­ing mis­in­for­ma­tion in the pub­lic, there will be heal­ing and there would not be a dis­tress in the pub­lic health sys­tem.”

Stephens claimed the sick­ness that is af­fect­ing staff at the EWM­SC was now spread­ing, as there were re­ports that the staff at oth­er hos­pi­tals in the South West­ern Re­gion­al Health Au­thor­i­ty were al­so tak­ing sim­i­lar ac­tion.

“We re­alise that the Gov­ern­ment as a whole is ac­tu­al­ly ig­nor­ing and gaslight­ing health­care work­ers. So it has spread to the south. So, we have heard that the dis­trict health fa­cil­i­ty in Port Fortin, it’s ac­tu­al­ly spread­ing. You may see a re­flec­tion of what is go­ing on in the NCRHA spread­ing to the oth­er ar­eas be­cause nurs­es are still work­ing on 2013 salaries. And with the in­creas­ing tax­es, things are re­al­ly dif­fi­cult for them.”

Nurs­es al­so cre­at­ed a pe­ti­tion which, up to 7 pm yes­ter­day, had 3,542 sig­na­tures, call­ing for Gopeesingh to be re­moved.

The pe­ti­tion stat­ed that nurs­es are “deeply dis­turbed” by the man­ner in which re­cent de­ci­sions were han­dled. It added that the re­moval or al­ter­ation of pool arrange­ments oc­curred with­out any of­fi­cial mem­o­ran­dum or trans­par­ent com­mu­ni­ca­tion, which showed a lack of re­spect for nurs­es.

“We fur­ther state that the con­duct of Tim Gopeesingh to­ward nurs­es has been per­ceived as dis­mis­sive, dis­re­spect­ful, and au­thor­i­tar­i­an. Lead­er­ship must be ac­count­able. We are call­ing for a for­mal apol­o­gy to all nurs­es and de­mand im­me­di­ate cor­rec­tive ac­tion. MR. TIM GOPEESINGH MUST GO,” the pe­ti­tion stat­ed.

It added that nurs­es will not be bul­lied, si­lenced or vic­timised “for stand­ing up for our rights.” It end­ed by in­di­cat­ing that nurs­es are the back­bone of health­care and they will con­tin­ue to ad­vo­cate not on­ly for them­selves, but for the safe­ty and qual­i­ty of care that pa­tients de­serve.

Told that the nurs­es’ ac­tion was hav­ing a neg­a­tive im­pact on pa­tients, Stephens dis­agreed, say­ing the nurs­ing staff was cham­pi­oning the wel­fare and ben­e­fit of pa­tients.

“I want to say that nurs­es tru­ly care about the pub­lic and what we are fight­ing for is the staffing, the right staffing. Be­cause I’m go­ing to be hon­est with you, be­fore this cri­sis, where it has been made pub­lic that nurs­es are un­well and not com­ing to work, pa­tients were dy­ing at the very fa­cil­i­ty be­cause there is short-staffing. Even with the pool from be­fore, they did not have enough nurs­es. So, what we are fight­ing for is to get the right staff-to-pa­tient ra­tio so that lives will be saved.”

Her as­sur­ances, how­ev­er, were not ac­cept­ed by Ja­son Miller, whose cousin was at the Ac­ci­dent and Emer­gency De­part­ment await­ing treat­ment up to last night.

Miller, who spoke to Guardian Me­dia from Cana­da, said his cousin was tak­en to the hos­pi­tal since last Wednes­day with an au­toim­mune ail­ment and is still wait­ing for di­ag­nos­tic care. He ac­cused nurs­es of ran­som­ing pa­tients’ lives for wage in­creas­es.

“So, we rather that per­son die and then we will show the Gov­ern­ment that we nurs­es, we want more mon­ey, or we want what­ev­er. Se­ri­ous­ly, life over what? That doesn’t make any sense to me though ... I can’t wrap my mind around this type of think­ing. I don’t un­der­stand this eth­i­cal­ly!”

Miller said he may con­sid­er get­ting for­eign me­dia to high­light the nurs­es’ ac­tion to warn for­eign­ers not to come to the T&T be­cause they may not be treat­ed.

Shar­ing Miller’s view that the ac­tion is im­pact­ing pa­tients more than any­one else was 69-year-old Len Sal­vary, who was near tears as he re­called the con­di­tion at the hos­pi­tal when he vis­it­ed his daugh­ter over the week­end.

Sal­vary said his daugh­ter, who was tak­en to the emer­gency room for a blood clot in her lungs, has been on a wheel­chair for near­ly three days.

“She on a wheel­chair for three days now! Not a bed, no­body go­ing on no ward be­cause it have no nurs­es on no ward. It have no nurs­es in the hos­pi­tal, broth­er, to see about pa­tients. That is the kind of chaos our hos­pi­tal is in. And if Mt Hope is like that, well don’t talk about Port-of-Spain Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal. They are telling us most of the pa­tients at Mt Hope com­ing in to­day right now is com­ing from Ari­ma Hos­pi­tal.”

List of de­mands by nurs­es to end the ac­tion:

1. Recog­ni­tion of nurs­ing as a pro­fes­sion — not as­sis­tants. Nurs­es are trained, skilled pro­fes­sion­als who work along­side doc­tors as equals. Our role must be re­spect­ed ac­cord­ing­ly and paid as such.

2. Salary ad­just­ment — End the 2013 pay scale. We de­mand up­dat­ed salaries that re­flect cur­rent eco­nom­ic re­al­i­ties and the crit­i­cal na­ture of our work.

3. End to pool ex­ploita­tion-Pool sys­tems must be re­placed with prop­er, law­ful over­time com­pen­sa­tion.

4. Full com­pen­sa­tion for out­stand­ing pool pay­ments. Every nurse must be paid in full for all com­plet­ed pool work — no de­lays, no ex­cep­tions.

5. Safe work­ing en­vi­ron­ments. Pro­tec­tion from work­place vi­o­lence, burnout and un­safe con­di­tions must be pri­ori­tised. No more short­ages.

6. Im­ple­men­ta­tion of safe nurse-to-pa­tient ra­tios. Pa­tient safe­ty and nurse well­be­ing de­pend on prop­er staffing lev­els.

7. Re­spect, dig­ni­ty and equal treat­ment. Nurs­es must be treat­ed as equal mem­bers of the health­care team, with our voic­es heard and val­ued.

8. Job se­cu­ri­ty — end pro­longed con­tract em­ploy­ment. Nurs­es work­ing for over three years on con­tract must be grant­ed per­ma­nent po­si­tions