‘PROVIDE THE EVIDENCE!’
Regional health authorities demand proof from former NAJ president that J’can nurses are being sidelined
TWESTERN BUREAU: HE REGIONAL health authorities across the island are taking issue with Carmen Johnson, the immediate past president of the Nurses Association of Jamaica (NAJ), over recent statements in which she claimed that they were being too slow to employ local nurses. They are demanding that she provide the requisite proof.
Errol Greene, regional director of the Western Regional Health Authority, rubbished the claim, stating that his organisation gives local nurses first preference when they are employing new staff members.
“Our first priority is to employ those persons who want to work with us, who are locally trained. I do not know what she (Johnson) is talking about, and I challenge her to provide the evidence of what she is saying, ”Greene said.
“I am on the record as saying that our first priority is to hire our local professionals, and that is our priority in the western region. We look at overseas professionals as a last resort, ”continued Greene. “If she (Johnson) knows nurses that are in need of jobs now, I will gladly interview them.”
Like Greene, Michael Bent, the Southern Regional Health Authority’s regional director, said locals are always given first choice, and foreigners are brought in only when local health workers cannot be found to fill the gaps in the sector.
“It is not like we want to hire foreigners over Jamaicans, and I do not think that is so at all. When we take in foreigners, it is usually a bilateral decision when we have gaps to fill, but certainly, once there are vacancies and there are applications, Jamaican nurses are usually the ones who are hired,” said Bent. “If there are gaps and we exhaust the local options, then the Government would have to make a decision to go overseas.”
Fabia Lamm, regional director for the North East Regional Health Authority, said that her region’s only recruitment challenge at present is in finding local registered nurses who are certified above the Nurse One (RN 1) level.
“We currently have existing vacancies for nurses within the health facilities in the region, and hence there are no delays in recruiting. Our challenge continues with identifying nurses above the RN 1 level, and it is because of this significant gap in identifying specialist nurses locally that there is a need to recruit these nurses from overseas, ”said Lamm.
Efforts to get a comment from Maureen Golding, the regional director for the South East Regional Health Authority, were unsuccessful.
During a Gleaner interview on Monday, Johnson said the Government brings in contracted foreign medical workers because the regional health authorities have been reluctant to hire local nurses, which the NAJ has been urging the Government to do. She was responding to Health and Wellness Minister Dr Christopher Tufton’s announcement that 127 new nurses, 20 midwives, and 121 medical officers would be hired to help ease the current strain on the public health sector due to the COVID19 pandemic.