KINGSTON, Jamaica – The Nurses Association of Jamaica (NAJ) is expressing some level of concern regarding the moves by the government to employ temporary healthcare workers from the diaspora to address staff shortages.
Members of the Nurses Association of Jamaica, Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness, and Minister of Health and Wellness Christopher Tufton (via Twitter)The additional workers are expected to assist Jamaica in clearing a backlog of nearly 5,000 elective surgeries.
However, NAJ president Patsy Edwards Henry, told Radio Jamaica News that her organization, like some medical doctors, have concerns.
“When we look at the outline, they are bringing in persons for five days some for 10 days. These persons have not worked in the Jamaican settings for years, they would therefore need orientation and guidance.
“So it didn’t seem practical to us to bring persons in who…happening in the environment because it defeats the purpose because the same nurses that that we say are short (in numbers) would have to Health Minister Dr Christopher Tufton has been defending his visits to eight hospitals in Florida, Georgia, Washington, DC and New York in the United States to recruit healthcare workers. He said d 100 healthcare workers in the diaspora have already agreed to participate in the project he anticipates that 400 applicants will join the initiative – dubbed Code Care – by the end of the year.
But the NAJ president told Radio Jamaica News that the concerns of the nurses have been discussed with the health ministry “and one of the suggestions that we made was that we pool nurses and we group them and then we do week on or day off surgery in specific areas.
“So we looked at the possibility of getting groups together …and have the backlog cleared and whatever money the government has that will be accommodating airfare,…(for) these persons who will be coming in, spend it on our locals”.
The NAJ said it is also not pleased with the remuneration arrangement for the temporary healthcare professionals whose applications have been accepted for the Code Care initiative.
Under this arrangement, the temporary staff will travel to Jamaica with the Government paying all expenses and giving them a stipend. Each of these temporary workers will choose either a stay of seven or 14 days with a two-day or four-day rest.
The NAJ president pointed to the COVID-19 vaccination blitz that was used at the peak of the pandemic to carry out mass immunization against the virus as a model that could be emulated to clear the surgical backlogs.
