The Tribune

By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

PRIME Minister Dr Hubert Minnis said he will meet senior doctors in the public healthcare system this week to consider their concerns, hoping to stave off actions that could cripple the healthcare system.

The Consultant Physician Staff Association could hold a strike vote this week, CPSA leader Dr Locksley Munroe said at a press conference on Thursday.

The threat reflects the breakdown in their efforts to secure an industrial agreement with the Public Hospitals Authority.

During a press conference on Saturday upon his return from New York where he attended a United Nations meeting, Dr Minnis said: “As you know I was at one point in time a member of the senior officers league or whatever you want to call it and I spoke with my colleagues about a week ago before I left so I was not sleeping, I know what’s going on. I asked them about their concern and we spoke and I told them that as soon as I return I would meet with them, so I have all intentions of meeting with my colleagues this week on that issue. I understand what their matters are and they understand what challenges and obstacles we may face, but we have a very, very good relationship.”

Dr Minnis met with the Bahamas Nurses Union in August amid its threats of industrial action. The union’s rhetoric has toned down since then. The CPSA has not specified what it wants from the PHA, but its concerns centre around financial benefits.

Last week, Dr Munroe said: “Despite what ought to be a civil, polite, respectful process, since the 16th of July, the PHA has not made any formal contacts with us to forward this negotiation process. They have not had the respect, the decency, to make contact with any of us to indicate that they are willing to come back to the table and that is a total lack of respect for persons like ourselves.

“To date, we have not received a counter-proposal to the document we submitted initially in January of 2016. A fundamental aspect of any negotiation process is you submit a proposal, a counter-proposal is produced by the other side and you sit and negotiate a reasonable, amicable resolution to what that proposal is.”