The Tribune

By KHRISNA RUSSELL

Deputy Chief Reporter

krussell@tribunemedia.net

HEALTH Minister Dr Duane Sands defended the Public Hospitals Authority’s now deferred shift system yesterday saying the move would free up a minimum of 100 nurses to be used in public health where there are shortages.

The proposed new shift system, which was to be implemented this month, was postponed indefinitely due to intense push-back from the Bahamas Nurses Union, including a threat of strike action.

But yesterday when he was asked about there not being sufficient staff in the Princess Margaret Hospital’s Dialysis Unit, Dr Sands made a case for the new shifts.

“All of these issues are tied,” the minister said yesterday outside of Cabinet. “So when you look at nursing staffing and a proposal to modify shift systems that would free up almost 100 (to) 150 nurses.

“Failing that you now have to look at importing nurses from the Philippines, from Africa, from the Caribbean, etc. We are training nurses as quickly as they can be trained, but there is no quick fix particularly when you have ongoing recruitment to the United States to Canada and elsewhere with offers that cannot be matched by the public service.”

He was asked about claims that the Dialysis Unit closed early Monday with patients unable to receive treatment.

“I am not aware of that. Certainly as you know the Dialysis Unit has had ongoing challenges as have many of the services in our hospitals. We have tried to give Bahamians an understanding of where we are and how we got here but we have also tried to demonstrate how we are going to improve it and I am very pleased with the positive changes that have taken place in maternity, in imaging, in ward space, in the repairs of the roof, in the near completion of the kitchen in the Rand Memorial Hospital.

“As we solve the problems with healthcare, it is going to mean that we change the model radically. What may have existed and what may have worked in 1950 doesn’t work anymore.

“. . .What used to work doesn’t work. It’s broken and for the benefit of the people of the Bahamas we are setting about fixing it and the problems which have occurred over 20, 30, 40 years, I’ve been here 25 years. I’ve watched it happen so believe me, as long as I have strength in my body, as long as the prime minister has strength in his we are committed to fixing it,” Dr Sands said yesterday.

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