Nurses disheartened with Deyalsingh: No consultation on home visits

President of the Registered Nurses Association (TTRNA) Idi Stewart says the association is very concerned about the safety of nurses and midwives going into communities to make home visits for post-natal care.

In an interview, Stewart said he felt very disheartened with Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh for not consulting the association before announcing the initiative.

He said if there had been consultation, the association would have raised the issue of safety, especially in “hotspot areas.”

“While the association is not familiar with all the details of the ministry’s programme, it is something we will be addressing. In some areas they would assign a vehicle to carry nurses and midwives to the various destinations. It is generally the DHVs (district health visitors) who do this particular activity and the DHVs would be accustomed to the areas and the patient would be accustomed to the DHV. They are already tasked with the function.

But now, he said, the ministry was “just randomly taking nurses to do the task.

“For new people to go into areas they are not accustomed to is putting our nurses at serious risk, because these people would not know the patients, and it takes time to build a relationship within the community, especially hotspot areas.

“It takes a long time. We used to have the DHVs and currently we have the mental health officers who already visit patients, but it is a learning curve in itself, and just to put persons in fields to do that, they will be at serious risk.”

He said he was not familiar with the details of the programme, but in other areas a vehicle would be assigned to transport health care staff, and the Health Minister should say whether nurses and mid-wives would be provided with transport.

“I would like to know if they are just using the DHVs and MHO’s (Ministry of Health officers) and district health visitors. But that is already in the job spec of the DHVs.

“From what happened yesterday (Sunday) at the launch of the initiative, it is actually any nurse or midwife would be going into communities, which is a serious cause for concern.”