Senior public health nurses and officials from the Ministry of Health are to meet today to iron out issues arising from transferrals and security problems at the Branford Taitt Polyclinic.
General secretary of Unity Workers’ Union, Caswell Franklyn, told this to the DAILY NATION after an almost two-hour meeting with 11 senior nurses at the Eunice Gibson Polyclinic in Warrens, St Michael, yesterday evening.
The meeting is to be held at the ministry’s Best-dos Santos Public Health Laboratory at Enmore, Collymore Rock, St Michael, from 3 p.m.
“The meeting today arose out of the transferrals of the nurses and a number of grievances they have,” Franklyn said.
“It is not one issue; there are several issues the nurses are dealing with. The pressure was piling on and on and they are only human beings; they will snap at some time.”
For the past several months, nurses attached to the Black Rock, St Michael polyclinic have been complaining about being threatened by “bad boys” who had been seeking medical attention there.
Last week the ministry released an advisory informing the public that that polyclinic had temporarily ceased its extended opening hours until further notice.
It added there were incidents of unruly behaviour by some members of the public, which negatively impacted staffers and affected those seeking care.
In the last SUNDAY SUN, Franklyn claimed Government was trying to shift “every senior nurse around the place . . . and people are resisting”.
He said the ministry should fix the problem at Black Rock before attempting a “wholesale” transfer.
“If they have a problem at Black Rock and they try to move somebody, they are putting someone else in harm’s way.
“The issue is to fix the problem; not transfer somebody into the problem.”
The DAILY NATION understands the ministry is investigating reports of a nurse at the polyclinic being accosted by family members of a man who allegedly threatened her.
Franklyn said yesterday the ministry was denying that the notion of transferrals arose from issues at Black Rock, but it was something the nurses would find out after today’s meeting. (SB)
