Govt. approves recruitment of 500 Bangladeshi nurses

Mar 26, 2024 News

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Kaieteur News – At a time when it is refusing to raise the salaries of local nurses, forcing hundreds of them to take up lucrative jobs in the United Kingdom and elsewhere, the Guyana Government last month approved the recruitment of 500 Bangladeshi nurses to work here.

Government in recent times have been recruiting nurses from Cuba and other countries and reportedly paying them more than their local counterparts.  Sigma Engineers Ltd. Inc was given the approval as the recruitment agency in a letter dated February 5, 2024. In the letter which was signed by Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Hugh Todd, the government confirmed that Sigma Engineers Ltd as the agent to do the recruitment of 500 Bangladeshi healthcare workers  for employment and liaise with the relevant authorities.

The approval letter found its way on social media, raising alarm about the deal, given that the government has been refusing to engage the Guyana Public Service Union in collective bargaining to address the issue of increase pay for nurses and other categories of healthcare workers. Persons have also raised concerns about the language barrier and question the competence of the nurses to be recruited.

Recruiting from Cuba too

In response to the circulation of the approval letter on social media, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that in response to a request from Sigma Engineers Ltd., it issued the letter to confirm that the agency was authorised to recruit healthcare workers, with the view to addressing concerns raised both by the public and private sectors on the severe skills shortage in the health sector. “The Private Sector Commission has on numerous occasions requested the Government’s assistance in addressing the need to fill the skills shortages not only in the health sector but also in the critical sectors of construction, engineering, and services given the expansion and growth of Guyana’s economy. In this regard, the recruitment agency was appointed to liaise with relevant authorities from various countries to recruit healthcare workers including, but not limited to Bangladesh. It is within this context that the authorization letter was issued by the Ministry to prevent issues such as human trafficking or any abuse of this process,” the statement read. The ministry said to date no one has been recruited through Sigma Engineers Ltd. Inc as shortages are currently being filled by personnel from Cuba. “The Government of Guyana remains open to the recruitment of specialized skills which do not currently exist in Guyana from any part of the globe, for both the public and private sectors,” the statement concluded.

GPHC shortage

At the end of 2023 the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) the country’s main referral hospital, had a deficit of about 600 nurses to meet its needs and achieve industry standard. Director of Nursing Services, Leslyn Holder had said that there were 896 nursing staff at the start of January 2023 of which 116 were from the Ministry of Health. She said that at the end of November, there were 881 staff remaining. The Director of Nursing Services said too that during 2023, 86 personnel were hired and two rehired while 146 persons resign. Holder said based on the numbers, the hospital is facing challenges. “There are gaps in the following areas as it relates to patient care; daily staffing of various wards and units and this can result in key components in care that can be affected such as activities of daily living,” she said.

In light of this the Guyana Public Service Union had predicted a collapse of the health sector here, noting the “disrespectful” treatment of public servants by what it described as “pretensive administration.” The GPSU had said the “evasiveness of Government to engage the union since the last encounter through the collective bargaining process is very discomforting. This is so particularly because it was the people that elected the members of Government, who individually took an oath to uphold the law, the union stated. “Instead, they are committing wanton breaches of the law in full public view and with no consequences. It tells the populace that the institutions that were formulated to keep Government in check are either not working as they should or have been politically hijacked or is devoid of appropriate mechanisms to ensure good governance.”

The union said rather than resolving industrial relation issues in collaboration with the GPSU, which will ultimately result in retention of locally trained staff, the GOG has decided to import Cuban nurses in the short term. “There are already serious concerns being raised by local staff about not only the qualifications of these nurses, but also the impact on morbidity and mortality of patients. The language barrier poses a serious challenge to effective communication between professionals and more importantly between patient and nurse.”

Steal nurses

Vice President, Bharrat Jagdeo back in January this year when told about nurses leaving Guyana to ply their trade in other countries owing to the low salaries they receive said that the Government of Guyana may very well have to ‘steal’ nurses with attractive recruitment packages to be able to adequately staff the new hospitals that are to be built in the future.

At a news conference Jagdeo was asked by the media if he thought “the government would be able to reverse the tide with respect to the bleeding of nurses that we have been seeing over the years?” In response, the Vice President said, “The same way our nurses are being stolen, I think we may have to do some of this policy ourselves. You have some registered nurses around the world, that’s how we may be able to recruit too, at pretty competitive rates. Nearly competitive with what we pay a nurse now here and we have to explore all sorts of things to keep our hospitals going.” The VP explained that the government would have to “bring in people”. “We have some people now from other parts (of the world but), we should in the outer years, when our income levels go up significantly when you can sustain it from a predictable flow, we should be able to do that,” Jagdeo explained.

Further, President Irfaan Ali last year had also acknowledged the shortage of nurses in the local health system and indicated that his government is engaging Cuba on having nurses from there come into Guyana’s workforce. While answering questions from the media, the Head of State said that one of the main issues facing the Caribbean region is the outward movement of nurses and health workers. According to him places such as Canada, the United Kingdom, the United States of America and Europe are facing the same shortages, hence now the world is on an active drive of recruiting nurses all over. “…When I spoke to the administration of the Georgetown Public Hospital, it was said they now have hundreds of nurses short of their full complement,” he related. In dealing with the issue, the President said his government is moving decisively on a number of training programmes for nurses and bringing more nurses into the system.

“So we have to find the immediate measure, the medium term and long term. The medium and long term is to train and retrain and train more than the capacity that you need but the immediate term for example for nurses is to have nurses come into the system from external sources,” he explained. In terms of the medium- and long-term approach, President Ali said in his statement that they have a programme now for anyone with the entry requirement to pursue nursing. “We are developing a hybrid nursing programme to increase training of nurses from about 150 to 200 per year to now enable us to train between 1000 to 1500 nurses per year. This programme has already started and not only the training of nurses, we are also working on specialized areas for nurses,” he disclosed. While training is being offered to get nurses in the system, the President said they are also looking at the present situation where there is a shortage.  At that time, the President disclosed that he had discussions with the Cuban Ambassador to have nurses come into the country.

Salary adjustments

Ali back in December 2022 had announced adjustments to salaries of several categories of healthcare workers, which he said then, demonstrated his administration’s commitment to the professionals in the sector. According to Ali, Medical Interns will now have a minimum salary of $200,000, Medical Officers will now have minimum salary of $300,000, Medical Officers of 1 year of post-employment will now earn a minimum of $351,204, while Medical Officers with two-year post employment will receive a minimum of $414,032. Regarding Medical Officers, Ali said those with three years, their minimum salary will be adjusted to $446,160, while Specialist Doctors will now earn $450,000 minimum. For Nurses, President Ali said Nurse Aides and Patient Care Assistants will now earn a minimum of $100,000, while Nursing Assistants will now earn $115,000. Midwives will now earn a minimum salary of $169,438, Staff Nurses will now earn $169,438 and Staff Nurses Midwives will now earn $195,000, according to President Ali. The Guyanese Leader also addressed Allied Health Workers, announcing that Pharmacy Assistants will now earn a minimum of $100,000, Dental Aides and Lab Aides and Community Health Workers will now earn a minimum of $100,000. The President said Medex will now earn $200,000 minimum and Pharmacists will now earn $215,000. President Ali said over 5000 persons in the public health sector will benefit from the salary increases.

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• Bangladeshi, Bharrat Jagdeo, forcing, local nurses, Vice President

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