Barbados is seeking to augment its nursing staff at Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) and Ghana will once more be the source. Speaking at a Barbados Labour Party gathering at St. Christopher Primary School, where Senator Dr. Shantal Munro-Knight was recently nominated as the new Christ Church South candidate, Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley disclosed that the decision to increase the number of foreign-trained nurses entering the country was approved at the recent Cabinet meeting.
“We know we are short on nurses. Cabinet agreed that a team of six will go to Ghana yet again, to be able to allow us to bring in 112 nurses from there. I have agreed also to create in the nursing department, 142 registered nurses, 71 this year and 71 next year, to fill vacancies and increase the number of posts to ensure we have a better nursing ratio.”
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Since many of the nurses still found it difficult to go through the United States, the United Kingdom, or other European nations, she continued, the government could need to charter a flight to transport them from Ghana or any other African country to Barbados.
In addition, Mottley stated that the positions of nurse practitioner and nursing specialist were being created, “You should not have to go into administration to learn more in the nursing profession. If you are a good nurse, we want you to continue to be a good nurse and deliver services to the patients and the nursing profession,” she noted.
The Prime Minister stated that it was no secret that the QEH’s Accident & Emergency Department required ongoing bolstering. “We have agreed that between additional nursing assistants, nurses, departmental aids, and orderlies, that six more doctors, we’re going to put them there.”
She also disclosed that she had inspected the new geriatric hospital that is being constructed in Waterford Bottom, St. Michael, and that it is anticipated to be finished in April or May of the following year.
