The Tribune

By EARYEL BOWLEG

Tribune Staff Reporter

ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

THE Bahamas Nurses Union has filed a trade dispute against the Public Hospitals Authority and Department of Public Health.

BNU president Amancha Williams told The Tribune yesterday that safety issues in the work environment along with a failure to communicate, failure to pay on time and a failure to finalise an industrial agreement, sparked the union’s decision to file the dispute.

Ms Williams also noted mould and a number of air conditioners malfunctioning in various areas.

She said Princess Margaret Hospital’s Eye Ward had to be shut down due to problems related to those issues.

She added that there were five nurses who had electrical shock between late last year to early this year and there were others who were out sick due to the presence of mould in the workplace.

 The dispute was filed on April 19.

 The BNU president said: “We have been losing a lot of our nurses in The Bahamas and they are moving on to and are going to better places with better benefits if we want to keep our nurses. If we could offer, we must offer in a timely fashion and we have not been doing that. I’m sitting around waiting for years for a promotion. When I get to the States, my yearly performance here - bang it comes. No delays. You have people waiting three to 10 years. The promotion is there sitting on somebody’s desk.

 “I have three nurses waiting from last year June have not been appointed. The two governments will share this problem. We have the new government been in for nine months and they were waiting from last June. To this year coming, June will make a whole year they have not gotten an appointment letter and getting a salary that is less than a $1,000.

“How have they been surviving for a whole year? That’s not good. Then you’ve already failed them. They ain’t start working yet. They only have disbelief in your organisation because of the way that you’ve handled business. You know we’ve been working on this. So, that’s why we say failure to communicate to our members, failure to communicate to the union because nurses have to call and say ‘I haven’t got that appointment letter yet, madame president’.”

 Before the weekly Cabinet meeting, Health and Wellness Minister Dr Michael Darville acknowledged BNU did file a dispute, noting a lot of it has to do with the condition of some of the clinics as well as tertiary facilities.

 He gave an assurance that officials were doing what they can at the ministry to begin to solve long standing problems that exist at many of the healthcare facilities.

 “I must say that we moved on it immediately. We went through the mould remediation exercise and the building was assessed by a public analyst and the building has been cleaned and workers are back in that particular facility.

“But with that being said we do have buildings with the Ministry of Health that have issues and we believe we are on top of them and we constantly have to go through the process of mould remediation and cleaning. A lot of it has to do with the infrastructural upgrades that (are) needed. If you have air conditioning systems that are not working effectively you can have increase temperature that can cause mould build up.

 “If you have leaks at particular buildings where there may be air conditioning leaks as a loss of integrity of the roof, we need to move on that because where water goes or moisture goes, mould will follow.

 “So, we are doing what we can as I speak at the ministry to begin to solve longstanding problems that exist with many of the healthcare facilities.”

 The minister noted renovations going on at the Elizabeth Estate clinic and work beginning to start renovations at the South Beach Clinic. However, renovations are needed at the Blue Hill Road clinic.

 He noted that much of that preparation has been done and looks forward through the IDB loan for clinic upgrades as well as clinic construction.