No foreign nurses until Ministry hires locals

President of the TT Registered Nurses Association Idi Stewart says the association will not tolerate Government hiring Cuban nurses when 300 nurses were sitting at home awaiting employment.

Stewart said the regional health authorities would continue to be short of registered nurses as the compensation package for nurses was extremely poor.

He said nurses were being recruited by foreign nursing agencies for better packages which was the reason why the Health Ministry could not stop the exodus. Stuart said these agencies were asking for at least two years’ experience so the seasoned, experienced nurses were leaving, with only junior nurses remaining.

Stewart said shortage of experienced nurses led to significant patient morbidity and mortality rate because patients were not getting quality health care.