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  • 10 months ago
The Trinidad and Tobago National Nurses Association tells government while it is all well and good to construct and open new medical facilities, they cannot be efficiently run without property trained staff.

The Association's President Idi Stuart was speaking on the heels of the opening of the Central Block at the Port of Spain General Hospital.


Tv6's Nicole M Romany has the story....
Transcript
00:00We will have these very lofty and expensive $1.3 billion hospitals in Cuva, in 0.14.
00:09Every hospital is one point something.
00:12But let me tell the national public, every single one of those facilities would be operating
00:19below capacity.
00:21The association president believes these facilities will be operating with unsafe staffing levels,
00:28he says.
00:29Brick and mortar cannot deliver care.
00:32And while the membership is thankful for the new central block, it is the nurses who do
00:37the work, Stuart tells us.
00:39This has been an issue they have lobbied government for for a long time to no avail, he says.
00:46No one wants to address the patient to staff ratio issue.
00:51We are going to place those nursing personnel in an environment where one nurse will have
00:57to see about 10, 12, 13, 14 patients.
01:00How is that possible?
01:01How can you get quality health care in an environment like that?
01:07It is impossible.
01:08Further, he notes that the Pan American Health Organization pointed out some issues in the
01:14local health care system.
01:15Last power report into the deaths of the eight babies at Portisfield General Hospital, NICU,
01:23so ironic, the very same Portisfield General Hospital, identified the shortcomings of the
01:30health care system.
01:31So if PAHO, international experts, not me, but international experts, could have identified
01:37so many shortcomings, including shortage of nursing, shortage of nursing staff, that tells
01:44you there's no way you can provide quality health care.
01:50The state also gave kudos to Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley on standing up against threats
01:55to revoke visas to persons in countries that bring in Cuban medical personnel.
02:01We rely on our Cuban counterparts to supplement our health care system.
02:07So we have to be cautious.
02:10We know the environment we operate, this global environment, but we would want to thank the
02:15government, the minister, prime minister for standing up for our country.
02:19And if it means, if the only repercussion means some ministers will lose their visas,
02:25then so be it.
02:26If that is the only fallout, we would be.
02:28But we cannot further deplete our health care system in Trinidad and Tobago.
02:34The prime minister said this country relies a lot for our health delivery on certain specialists
02:41who over the decades have obtained from India, from the Philippines, sometimes from Africa
02:47and mainly from Cuba.
02:49He further stated that he will ensure that the sovereignty of Trinidad and Tobago is
02:54known to its people and respected by all.
02:59Nicole M Romany, TV6 News.
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