Dr Michael Darville
By EARYEL BOWLEG
Tribune Staff Reporter
ebowleg@tribunemedia.net
HEALTH and Wellness Minister Dr Michael Darville said the public health system is short 450 nurses, including more than 170 speciality nurses.
He said the government would recruit nurses from Ghana again to address the problem.
He said postgraduate nurses are being trained to help fill gaps.
The Davis administration has announced plans to build a new speciality hospital in the Perpall Tract area.
Amid concerns about how the government would staff the facility, Dr Darville said yesterday: “Trust me when I tell you we have a strategic plan to ensure that we populate these tertiary healthcare facilities by way of locally trained healthcare professionals, health professionals that we bring into the country from abroad and health professionals who we are trying to get back, who from the diaspora who migrated abroad.”
In November, 18 nurses from Ghana began their employment here. They signed a renewable two-year contract with the Ministry of Health and Wellness.
Three went to Grand Bahama, nine were stationed at the Princess Margaret Hospital, and six were attached to the Department of Public Health.
Comments
ExposedU2C 1 month ago
This guy Darville is as corrupt and incompetent as they come and should have long ago been forced to resign from cabinet. Aside from being an utter embarrassment, he is most dangerous to the public's health and well-being. Seriously ill people needing quality medical attention and care are losing their lives because of him.
SP 1 month ago
If these fools would stop treating Bahamian nurses like shyt causing them to quit and leave the country, there wouldn't be a nursing shortage!
ThisIsOurs 1 month ago
The problem with the public health system is deeper than worker tallies. I
The biggest problem is quality of care, too many times I've had relatives given nonsense diagnoses as determined by review of symptoms by a proven professional. That is the hospital's most pressing problem, nobody cares about number of workers if the error rate is high.
The secondary problem is the facilities and supplies, not up to par. The final problem is number of workers. All need to be balanced for effective healthcare.
I would have loved for Brave Davis to have taken his recent health issue to identify how many warehouse workers, nurses, hairdressers, barbers etc etc are living with like pain having to stand all day, with no option to pay for costly surgeries or take 3 months break from work. Commiserate with those people and determine how you first reduce the rate of this very common injury and second if it's possible to bring relief to persons suffering. But no he spent the entire time talking about his few months of pain. Never too late but the weeks passed are telling
BONEFISH 1 month ago
There is an acute shortage of nurses in the United States and Canada. Many bahamian nurses have migrated to greener pastures. I know a lady whose daughter is a highly qualified nurse at John Hopkins University in Baltimore. I worked with a lady whose daughter makes over one hundred thousand dollars a year as a nurse in New York.
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