Unemployed nurses told to seek jobs outside of Tobago

Unemployed nurses should leave Tobago and seek employment opportunities elsewhere if there are no vacancies at the Tobago Regional Health Authority (TRHA).

So advised Registered Nurse June Melville, a director at TRHA, addressing concerns about lack of jobs for nurses at the TRHA/Tobago House of Assembly (THA) Public Accountability consultation on Tuesday night at the Calder Hall Multipurpose Facility.

“I am asking our nurses to have an open mind to this greater world. We have a great influx of nurses. The nursing profession has become one of the easier profession to join. If you look at our size in Tobago we simply cannot accommodate all.

“In the past when we experienced a similar issue, nurses were exported, so a lot of us went to the United States and around the world. Going to Trinidad should not be a problem,” she advised, also naming a company that she said was looking for nurses at this moment.

Lack of job opportunities for Tobago’s nurses was raised in the open forum by Tyrone Sealy of Moriah, who wondered whether there was a shortage of nurses at the Scarborough General Hospital.

Said Sealy:

“It seems as though a number of registered nurses are leaving their children and husbands to secure a position at an RHA in Trinidad because it seems like the Tobago is not hiring these nurses.

“I know some of them who have been waiting to be assigned for years and as soon as they leave Tobago, they are securing some top positions. We have our nurses in Tobago that are just here, many of them are working in supermarkets and nothing is more difficult than to study, graduate, wait over three years and see other colleagues go to Trinidad and get jobs before them.”

Dr Gloria Edwards-Joseph, Director, Personal Management and Industrial Relations at the TRHA, told the forum there was no shortage of nurses at the TRHA. She said interviews were conducted for the period 2016 -2017 and there were many medical practitioners on priority listing including nurses, who will be recruited accordingly.

“To facilitate new graduating nurses, we terminated the services of the older-than-60 years nurses to create employment opportunities. As far as we are concerned, all the vacancies are filled and as people retire, there are measures we put in place to select nurses on the priority listing.

“We cannot create vacancies as people return to the island, we have a fixed establishment and we recruit when the time comes.”

The TRHA currently has 1,532 staff members.

Another resident, Nathalie Sealy-Richardson, expressed frustration on the irregular attendance of Trinidad doctors at special clinical services. Sealy-Richardosn said her child’s appointment was frequently cancelled because the doctor was reportedly unable to secure a flight to Tobago on the clinic days.

She also raised concerns about the professionalism of health care practitioners employed with the TRHA, with particular reference to the low quality of customer service and issues with patient confidentiality.

Dr Anthony Thompson admitted the TRHA does have a challenge in terms of quality customer service despite having a quality control department. He said the department was “underpowered” in terms of providing a complete audit and there was a vacancy for a Quality Auditor.

Retiree Anderson Charles of Bagatelle suggested that the TRHA Board report on operations of the Authority regularly so improvements can be made before its two- year ends.

“This consultation comes at a time where the board is down to its final weeks. I want to suggest that we go back to the original practice of the Board accounting… six months into its tenure…indicating to the populace what are the challenges and what they can provide and then we can make a fair assessment or accountability on whether we were able to realise those objective,” Charles said.