00:00President of the Trinidad and Tobago National Nursing Association, Edie Stewart, is pleased
00:05to have heard Dr. Tim Gopi-Singh, Chairman of the North Central Regional Health Authority,
00:10reject claims of the implementation of a four-hour shift for nursing personnel and is imploring
00:15nurses not to take up those extra duties.
00:19We are indeed thankful that the Chairman of NCRHA, Tim Gopi-Singh, and I am hoping all
00:28nursing and midwifery personnel who are employed within the NCRHA is hearing for themselves.
00:36The Chairman is saying it is false and misleading, so therefore all of those rosters that have
00:43been changed overnight indicating this week that we are in and that is coming is the Chairman
00:55is saying that it is false and that you should not work those shifts.
01:01Stewart explains that over the years, nurses have been made to work longer days without
01:05compensation.
01:07So the normal work day, you are not supposed to work anything more than eight hours a day.
01:14Unfortunately, nursing and midwifery personnel have been placed in a situation where they
01:18work 10 hours, 12 hours a day as a normal day, not being paid over time, not being paid time
01:26and a half or getting back time and a half or double time or triple time when the day comes.
01:33But due to short staffing issues, the authority reportedly wants nurses to work four-hour shifts
01:38in order to cover deficiencies.
01:41We are short staffed. We are short by 400 plus nursing personnel within the North Central Regional
01:51Health Authority. We have thrown egg on our face and reduced the oil that used to come in and support
01:59our short staffed areas. We have done all of these things. Now we are suffering. The patients are suffering.
02:05The patients are dying. Now we need additional support. So we need persons to come and fill the gaps
02:12with these four hours here and there. So they would have to explain.
02:19As a result of the shortage, Stewart says that medical facilities, including the new block at the
02:25Port of Spain General Hospital, as well as the Coover Children's Hospital, cannot be fully functional.
02:30We don't have these staff currently. In fact, we don't even have
02:36a situation where we are training specialist nurses at this moment. So there's no nursing school in
02:43Toronto that is training specialist nurses for you to get the pediatric and neonatal nurses to work in
02:50that institution. So in addition to the overall shortage of nurses, we don't have specialist nurses
02:56nurses being trained. Added to that, the vacuum, the void that currently exists in Toronto needs to be filled
03:05before we begin considering opening new facilities. Dominic Ramroop, TV6 News.
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