DLP to Govt: Pay frontline workers

The Democratic Labour Party has called on Government to pay all frontline healthcare workers their promised hazard pay.

Speaking during the party’s online review of last week’s Estimates 2021-2022 debate, spokesperson on health Paul Gibson said that for all the talk of money being spent on health he was yet to hear a date for the payment of hazard pay.

He said: “One group of people we want to fight for at this time, in regards to the Estimates, are the nurses and healthcare workers. They have still not been paid the hazard pay.

“We are hoping that by Tuesday when they go to Parliament that we would hear that funds have been signed to make sure that just like the persons in the Ministry of Health, just like the persons at QEH that the wider polyclinic setting and the nurses that work there, the pharmacists, medical technicians and the maids that they all get that hazard pay. This is something we are calling for.”

The pharmacist accused Government of “unfairing” the workers at a time when they were needed most.

“You can’t unfair the people and expect that this thing will go away,” he said. “We need to do right by the healthcare professionals that are stepping up to the plate right now in COVID. I hope nurses hear this and respond to this call that we are making to the Government of Barbados.”

Gibson also said he was disappointed that the Ministry of Health’s Estimates cut funding to the Barbados Cancer Society when the chronic disease affects so many families in Barbados.

“Cancer affects a lot of our loved ones, our friends our family yet the Barbados Labour Party has sought to decrease the budget for the Barbados Cancer Society,” the DLP spokesman said. “Here is an institution that would capture and track and make sure that we eliminate cancer out of our environment. This is a big concern for me. This is one of the things they should not have done.”

During his submission, Gibson also told Government that now is the time to seriously explore medical tourism as a viable income earner. (IMC)