Nursing Council: We’ve done all we can to get exam results

David Murphy, president of Appointees of the Nursing Council of TT, said the council is waiting for the bank to approve the change of signatories which would allow the council to pay CXC and release the results of the Regional Examination for Nursing Registration.

He said the council went to the bank to change the signatories on Tuesday but the bank needed some additional information which was eventually provided. Now all the council can do is wait.

“It is the bank’s final decision to make the approval and then we move from there. It’s not a question that the council is not doing anything... I would have wished that the business was completed on Tuesday but I cannot determine how fast the bank will be. We would have done all that we can and are awaiting word from the bank.”

Recently one nursing exam candidate complained that she wrote the Regional Examination for Nursing Registration on October 3, 2019 after paying a fee to the Nursing Council.

She said the candidates were told results would be out within six to eight weeks of the exam but they have not yet got them.

In a previous interview with Newsday, Murphy explained the reason was because the council had not paid CXC to release the results. That was because, for a time, there was no official council until October when Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh appointed six people, making it valid. Until then there was no one to sign the cheques.

He said, “The council would have had its signatories on the previous council but if they are no longer members of the council, they have no authority to sign any cheque on behalf of the Nursing Council because it would be illegal.

“The council is in the process of seeking to ensure that the signatories to the account would be changed. It’s not that the council doesn’t have money.”

However, TT Registered Nurses Association (TTRNA) president and past Nursing Council member Idi Stuart believed that was an invalid reason and the wait for results was unnecessary.

“Normally the old signatories would continue signing the cheques until the new signatories are put in place.

And some banks are much more onerous in their process and it could be quite lengthy... There is no reason why the current signatories can not sign the cheques as has been the practice with the council for decades. It is not an issue.”

He gave the example of the TTRNA.

He said once it took the TTRNA a year to change signatories, and one bank insisted that every signatory, past and impending, be on site for the changeover.

“So it would be illogical for anybody to think you can get it done overnight and be able to start doing business immediately. And the council has five or six accounts for different purposes and I’m sure it’s only one account they would be doing. So what? They will not use those remaining accounts until those signatories are changed?”

Stuart said Deyalsingh appointed all the members to the council so, as a result, the minister is in a position to intervene in the interest of the candidates who paid to do the exam.

He said the minister could demand all the signatories be present to expedite the changeover or the Ministry could pay CXC to be reimbursed by the council when the financial issue is resolved.

“I can’t see why this is such a difficult situation to be resolved in a short time frame.

The results should have come out in November and every week this goes on it causes the nurses a further set back which is unfair to them through no fault of their own.”

When asked if the Ministry would intervene, Deyalsingh said in a text message response that it was not a matter for him but for the Nursing Council.