00:00The Trinidad and Tobago Registered Nurses Association has claimed that in what it called a shocking move,
00:06nursing and midwifery personnel across Trinidad and Tobago were informed on Sunday that the pool extra duty incentive has been
00:15cut and essentially taken back a decade.
00:19The TTRNA further said healthcare workers remain on 2013 salaries with no confirmed indication when workers would receive an increase.
00:28The TTRNA said it was instrumental on standardizing pool incentive across all RHAs and specialties over the last five years
00:39and will be seeking an emergency meeting with the CEO of the NCRHA, the North Central Regional Health Authority, with
00:46a view to stop the government's current position.
00:48TV6 News has spoke with the chairman of the NCRHA, Dr. Tim Gopi Singh, via telephone on Sunday.
00:55The 350 to 400 nurses who have registered themselves as pool nurses whenever they are required, they will indicate whether
01:04they are available or not.
01:05And the head nursing deals with that administrative aspect to ensure that patients' safety and care is always paramount and
01:18never properized.
01:19Dr. Gopi Singh spoke about what happened before he was appointed chairman of the NCRHA.
01:24What has happened is that during the last administration, the then-CEO, during the COVID period, raised the fees paid
01:36to nurses within the pools $75 per hour
01:42for all the nurses who worked for all the nurses during the COVID period, that continued up to 23, 24,
01:5125.
01:52Dr. Gopi Singh said the NCRHA board is following its fiduciary responsibility.
01:57In 2023, there was a note from the CPO through to the Ministry of Health, through to the RHAs, that
02:06the three areas that will continue to receive $75 at the intensive care unit,
02:12the cath lab, which we have at Eric Willems Medical Sciences, and the area dealing with psychiatry, the nurses who
02:23are psychiatric nurses.
02:25Those are three areas which we pay 75, and the others should be receiving $60.
02:31It just came to our attention recently, so we effected that from the 1st of March.
02:37The TTRNA questioned the timing of the decision, as it said hospitals are severely understaffed and nurses' income would be
02:45slashed by 20%.
02:46So it just came to our attention that we ought to have been paying $60 per hour for all full
02:54nurses, with the exception of these three areas, who we continue to pay $75 per hour.
03:01So there is no cut, no changes, except now we are adhering to the dictates of the CPO through the
03:09Government Secretary in the Ministry of Health.
03:12The Nurses Association said it would be monitoring all RHAs closely to see if they will be implementing similar instructions
03:19in the coming days.
03:20The association reminded all healthcare workers to join them on March 27th at midday at the Sandy Grandi Hospital,
03:28as it further announced there is to be what it called the big protest outside the Ministry of Health building
03:34on April 10th.
03:37Jewel Brown, TV6 News.
03:42Jewel Brown, TV6 News.
03:43Jewel Brown, TV7 News.
Comments