Rahael declares hospital impasse over

THE impasse between nurses in the operating theatres and doctors at the San Fernando General Hospital (SFGH) was officially declared over by Health Minister John Rahael yesterday, following a visit to the institution. For the past two days, the majority of nurses working in the nine operating theatres, failed to report for duty after a disagreement with doctors over an alleged incident that occurred with a patient in the recovery room sometime last week. On Monday, 15 operations were affected by the nurses’ action, while an additional 23 elective surgeries were cancelled on Tuesday. Flanked by South West Regional Health Authority (SWRHA) chairman Imtiaz Ahamad and SWRHA CEO Michael Harris, Rahael declared that nurses were back on the job and that elective surgeries had resumed.

He also confirmed surgeries which were cancelled because of the impasse had been re-scheduled for later in the week. Asked to comment on the cause of the impasse, Rahael said the situation might have developed due to severe understaffing of nurses at theatres, coupled with the recent extension of operating hours. “There were tremendous demands made on nurses due to the extended theatre time, which was recently increased to deal with the backlog of surgeries at the hospital,” Rahael said, adding that for the past month, surgery time had been extended from 2 pm to 4 pm. He stated, however, that often times surgeries went beyond the 4 pm cut-off time, which resulted in additional demands being placed on the already overworked nurses.

Rahael appealed to all healthcare professionals to communicate with their relevant supervisors before embarking on any type of action, saying the doors of both the SWRHA chairman and the Minister of Health, “were open.” Rahael also reiterated that some 15 Cuban nurses were due to be deployed to the nation’s three hospitals by next week, adding that the Health Ministry was on the lookout for “as many Cuban nurses as we can get.” Citing a worldwide shortage of nurses, Rahael said his Ministry was trying to “lure” back local nurses who left this country for greener pastures. He added that discussions had already been held with High Commissioner to the UK, Glenda Morean, after a number of local nurses “made enquiries” about returning home.