Deyalsingh: Cuban nurses paid allowances

Minister of Health Terrence Deyalsingh said while he did not have any authority on where in TT Cuban nurses would be deployed to assist local medical professionals, he sought to assure local nurses that they were not disadvantaged by these additional workers.

Responding to questions at Wednesday's virtual media conference, Deyalsingh said the nurses would have been paid a dislocation allowance by the Cuban government that would assist them during their stay in TT.

He said no special allowances or provisions were made with the arrival of the 12 nurses as the protocols for visiting medical staff would be the same.

"Any citizen contracted to work abroad via government-to-government agreement, or private, those people are always paid a disclocation allowance. Depending on the nature of the contracts they may get free travel to come back and forth and other allowances that helps mitigate the inconvenience of leaving your home country to go and work in another country.

"You may have to pay rent and do other things. With the Cuban nurses that has always been the practice not just with these 12, I hope the answer is contextualised from the perspective that it is not to disadvantage local nurses."

Deyalsingh said the placement of the nurses would be done by the various Regional Health Authorities depending on the demand for staff.

In March Deyalsingh announced that Cuban nurses would be sent to TT to assist in supporting medical staff during the covid19 pandemic.

He said the nurses would not be used as a substitute for local medical staff but rather to provide support in certain areas where TT would have a shortage of workers.