QEH management says nurses at hospital not involved in strike action

Management of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) is denying that the health care facility has been hit by the strike action being taken by nurses represented by the Unity Workers Union (UWU).

While the union’s general secretary Caswell Franklyn told Barbados TODAY that on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day some wards were short-staffed because nurses did not report for duty, executive director of the QEH, Juliette Bynoe-Sutherland said the absences on those days were the norm.

Franklyn has said that QEH nurses were joining the intensified industrial action, as the Government and nurses remain in a standoff over a range of issues.

“Some wards didn’t have nurses reporting for duty and they had to find nurses from other wards and deploy them and bring in old nurses that are retired to fill the void. They had to take nurses and deploy them from other wards, but they are trying to pretend that this is not happening,” he told Barbados TODAY.

“The nurses have given me the instruction to say they are not stopping. They are saying that ‘they have withheld our money, but we are accustomed to not getting money for three and four months’. So, you are not giving the nurses any money that they are legally entitled to. They are not going to falter. A lot of nurses have joined the union since last Thursday,” Franklyn insisted.

However, stressing that the UWU was not a bargaining unit at the QEH and hospital management was not aware of any nurses being on strike, Bynoe-Sutherland said it was customary for the hospital to record a higher absenteeism rate at this time of the year.

“We normally have high rates of absenteeism during the Christmas holiday season and Crop Over, and our rates of absenteeism are within the expected norm, and we move staff between wards to make up the differences to fill any gaps,” she explained.

Bynoe-Sutherland added that hospital management appreciated the usual coverage provided by staff when their colleagues “are out on leave” as it places an extra burden on those remaining.

“And our Queen Elizabeth Hospital nurses are known for doing their best to ensure that our babies, intensive care, medical and critical patients receive needed care during this turbulent time, and I want to thank them for holding strain,” Bynoe-Sutherland said.

“Our bargaining units are the NUPW [National Union of Public Workers] and the Barbados Nurses Association, and both have made significant and substantive representation on the issues impacting nursing,” she added.

For almost a month, UWU-represented nurses in the public sector have stayed away from work to force Government to fix longstanding issues affecting them, including poor working conditions, salary increases and sporadic payment of salaries.

Franklyn said the nurses are also upset that a meeting planned for December 24, between Minister of Health and Wellness Lieutenant Colonel Jeffrey Bostic and himself, never materialized after Bostic called minutes before the scheduled 9:30 a.m. start to make several demands, including that the healthcare providers return to work while talks were ongoing.

“The nurses are standing firm; we’ve got to,” the UWU General Secretary said.

Efforts to contact Minister Bostic proved futile. anestahenry@barbadostoday.bb