NWRHA and nurses postpone meeting

UPDATE:

A meeting scheduled to address health and safety concerns and challenges faced by nurses at the Port of Spain General Hospital (PoSGH) has been postponed until further notice, says CEO of the North West Regional Health Authority, Wendy Ali.

Ali told Newsday yesterday, the authority will continue to have discussions with the TT Registered Nurses Association (TTRNA) about issues at the hospital.

“A meeting was scheduled for last Thursday, but it was jointly agreed on to be postponed. We have addressed their concerns in an indirect manner for now.”

Two weeks ago, nurses protested to highlight major safety and health concerns on the wards at the hospital, calling on the NWRHA to remove the private security guard firm and replaced by MTS security officers.

Ali said, “The MTS security guards would not have been able to facilitate the request, and we had to come up with other alternatives. Right now our energies are elsewhere dealing with other matters, while we continue with our internal security as well as the present security guards at the hospital.” She said the authority will meet with the association at a later date to discuss several recommendations it had submitted.

TTRNA president Idi Stewart said although it was agreed the meeting would be adjourned, the association has planned a massive protest for September 7, at the St Ann’s Psychiatric Hospital.
He said the meeting was called off because of the whole issue with the closure of the central block at the PoSGH.

On Friday last, the NWRHA said the authority was relocating patients from the fourth and fifth floor of the central block of the PoSGH after the earthquake last week Tuesday.

“We have a meeting (today) with the Ministry of Health to treat with a number of issues and the situation at the PoSGH central block and a way forward. The ministry had already said it was going to retrofit the central block, but the association is against that decision.
“The ministry is just spending good money behind a bad project, wasting money. The building needs to be demolished and a new building needs to replace the old one at the central block, which has been an issue for the past nine years.”

Stewart said the association will be going into the meeting with structural engineers to emphasise the need for a new building.

He said the building was poorly designed, and although the old section of the hospital is more than 160 years old, it is much stronger than the central block. “We have all the reports to prove our point at the meeting. Another example of the mismanagement of the health sector is that we have been getting calls over the weekend, and up to yesterday the St Ann’s hospital has had no water for a couple of days. People need water to survive on a daily basis.”

He said the association was promised by the NWRHA that the matter would be dealt with, and to date nothing has been addressed.
“While the authority is blaming WASA, patients have not bathed for the past three days. Can you imagine the state of the toilets? The ministry’s resolution is to send six cases of water to the wards, which can only deal with the drinking water supply for patients during the morning period. It is real craziness going on at St Ann’s hospital. The situation is really unbearable.”

ORIGINAL STORY:

A meeting which was scheduled to address health and safety concerns, and challenges encountered daily by nurses at the Port of Spain General Hospital has been postponed until further notice, says CEO of the North West Regional Health Authority Wendy Ali.

Speaking with Newsday today, Ali said the authority will continue to have discussion with the TT Registered Nurses Association (TTRNA) about issues which is talking place at the Port of Spain General Hospital.

“A meeting was scheduled for last Thursday to deal with the health and safety issues but it was jointly agreed on to be postponed. We have addressed their concerns in an indirect manner for now. The TTRNA agreed to postpone the meeting at this point."

Meanwhile, President of the TT Registered Nurses Association, Idi Stewart said, "The ministry has already indicated to us that they are going to be retro-fitting the Central Block and the association is totally against that decision. The ministry is just spending good money behind a bad project, wasting money. The building needs to be demolished and a new building needs to replace the old one at the Central Block which has been an issue for the past nine years.”