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CCNTV6
  • 1 year ago

Thousands have a signed a petition by doctors calling for fair negotiations to take place... as doctors complain of living on substandard salaries and enduring poor working conditions.
Urvashi Tiwari Roopnarine reports.

Transcript
00:00Doctors of the Northwest Regional Health Authority have started a petition
00:04calling for fair salary negotiations and improved working conditions. The
00:10Northwest Doctors Association is a registered NGO with about 200 members
00:16across the RHA, but their petition has yielded some 2,557 signatures when we
00:24checked this afternoon. That's because the association was approached by doctors
00:29spanning all RHAs to advocate on their behalf. All that has been asked of us is
00:35to give a voice to the doctors who currently work within all of the
00:40RHAs to ask the question as to what is the state of our current salary
00:46negotiations and if there are any negotiations in fact going on. And that
00:51is all we are doing, we're just asking a question. Doctors are living off a 2015
00:57salary which Harris describes as inadequate and not reflective of the
01:03inflation rate, cost of living or the increased workload. We have tertiary
01:09level fees and associated costs that we have to bear that because we don't have
01:14access to scholarships or the GATE program at tertiary level isn't the same as it
01:19used to be. So that we now bear all of those costs totally upon ourselves and
01:24any researcher you would see that those exams or even if you are entering the
01:29University of the West Indies to do postgraduate studies, those programs are
01:32quite expensive to partake in. This has led to growing frustration he says and
01:39discontent among doctors with many choosing to migrate. As far as safety is
01:44concerned, Dr. Harris credited his RHA, the NWRHA, with putting additional safety
01:50measures in place following the recent shooting incidents at their hospitals.
01:54But the NWDA is not the bargaining body. In fact, that is the remit of the Medical
02:02Practitioners Association of TNT which is the bargaining body. But the
02:07constitution of MPAT's executive has become a great concern. The last election
02:14that we are, we meaning the fraternity, so we are located in 2015, there have been
02:22no negotiations or no communication as far as we are from the governing body to
02:28its members. So we are hoping for those, that scenario to change with, by the
02:38end of this process. The petition says numerous calls to the
02:43MPAT to have discussions with the NWDA about enhanced representation and
02:49negotiations have been completely ignored. Dr. Harris tells TV6 he recently
02:54made contact with a non-constitutionally elected leadership and is still awaiting
02:59a response. Their next step is to have the petition delivered to the Health
03:04Minister. While Harris says they understand Minister Terence Yeltsin has
03:08no role in negotiations, they are hoping his intercession can aid in at least
03:14getting some answers. Harris says as they are not a union, they cannot comment on
03:20any industrial action. Neither the Health Minister nor the CEO of the RHA
03:25responded to our calls. Ravishi Tiwari, Rupner Rai, TV6 News.
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