Dental nurses getting the shaft

THE EDITOR: This is the second time that I am writing to the Minister of Health via the newspaper on behalf of the section of health care givers in Trinidad and Tobago: Dental Nurses. I will continue to write on this issue, and other issues where people of this nation are treated with contempt by nationally elected administrations. I will write until justice appears to be done. These types of issues indicate that Governments take decisive action, not because they care, but for political expediency. They act because they love not the people, but the corridors of power. If this is not so, then why are dental nurses being treated this way? Is it not because they are so small in number? Is it not because they have not protested? This modus operandi seems nothing short of a flagrant flouting of the words of our National Anthem: “Here every creed and race find an equal place.”

Dental nurses work in the health centres of our country, meeting the dental needs of our nation’s children. They do professional cleaning, primary tooth extraction, and restorative dentistry, (that is, the filling of teeth). The latter two procedures, oftentimes, can only be performed under local anesthesia, which is hypodermically administered by these care-givers. Dental nurses visit schools to deliver dental health education lectures. They even make similar deliveries at PTA meetings, child welfare courses and other organisations, which may require their services. They often work unaided, as there is a shortage of dental assistants. They therefore, in addition to their routine work, have to answer telephone calls, make appointments, toute bagai. Before 1990, nurses and dental nurses were in the same range. They received the same remuneration and benefits. In 1990, after much protest action, in solidarity, by these two groups, the Government gave in. It was quite mysterious, however, to say the least that these dedicated workers were left in the cold. Is this what governments consider to be “an equal place”?

Today, in this country where tumult seems to be the norm, these public servants, in spite of the shabby and contemptuous treatment, are quietly at their post of duty, putting the dental health of the children first. It is a pity that this cannot be said about all workers. It seems that the policy of “caring” and “people first” is: Caring for the people who get on the worst first. What message are the administrators sending to their dedicated workers? Must they clamour for parity with their colleagues in Tobago who are being paid $1,000 more by the THA? Is it that they must show how serious they are by following suit and going on sick leave en masse? There were reports in the news that a hearing of the commission of inquiry had to be postponed because a member allegedly had a toothache. A multimillion-dollar inquiry into a billion dollar airport had to be adjourned prematurely allegedly because of dental pain.

The dental nurses’ job is also a high risk one. They are exposed to numerous diseases when they routinely hover over the mouths of their patients on a daily basis. They wear masks of course but it is not uncommon to find them working in poorly ventilated conditions. I am appealing to the Minister of Health to meet with these workers to discuss their plight. If the Minister of Education needs to get information about the correct texts to be used in schools, aren’t the stakeholders the ones who are consulted? There is a senior dental surgeon in the Ministry of Health who is in charge of all dental workers, yet suggestions, advice or consultation where the dental nurses are concerned never seem to reach his ear. You only feel the heat when your hand is in the fire. Mr Minister, I urge you to take a little time and meet with your dental nursing staff. There is a Dental Nurses Association that can be a source of relevant information. Getting information from another category of staff that may not even be cognizant of the job, its peculiarities, and its goings on may never paint a true picture.

C  FRANCIS
Mt  Lambert