Belize’s Nurses Are Still Leaving, Despite New Retention Plan

Belize may be trying to hold on to its nurses, but the world is pulling harder. Even with a new government retention package on the table, nurses are still leaving Belize for better pay and benefits abroad. At the same time, regional and international recruits say Belize simply isn’t competitive anymore. The pressure is mounting. If Cuban nurses exit the system, frontline workers warn the strain could quickly turn into a crisis. Nurse Andrew Baird says Belize is losing ground in the global race for healthcare workers, and without fast, meaningful change, hospitals and clinics across the country will feel it.

 

Andrew Baird, Nurse

“When the nurses was leaving just after COVID. And they have tried the Philippines, they have tried Nicaragua, they have tried the Caribbean so regionally. And the simple fact is that these nurses in the region and from the Philippines have been receiving better offers than what we have. As a motherfucker. I can tell you when we tried to get back the Filipino nurses in ize they were saying they, they were demanding apart from salary that the government of Belize of pays their house rent and all that, which would’ve come up to a quite a hefty package. And then you would have another issue because when the beigian nurses find us out, it posed some difficulties. When you talk about Nicaragua, what I know is that the salary in Nicaragua today, what it is today than 10 years ago, is basically more than what Belize is offering, a comparable to what we are offering.  We may be in either a deep deeper trouble if it is that the government and the US come up with a decision that the Cuban nurses has to leave to go back to Cuba. If you think we are sharp now, we’ll be much even shorter and could pause some serious. A risk to the health system.”

 

Government Sweetens Deal to Keep Nurses in Public Health System

 

Fierce global demand for nurses has pushed the government to sweeten its retention package to keep nurses in Belize’s public health system. Officials are now spelling out the added benefits. Chief Nursing Officer Lizette Bell says the plan isn’t a single incentive, but a phased package of financial perks to reward nurses and make staying home more attractive. It includes a ten percent specialist allowance, higher uniform support, and new monthly payments such as hazard pay, night allowances, and stipends for nurses on call. Nurses who remain in the public system are also receiving house lots and education scholarships.

 

Lizette Bell, Chief Nursing Officer, Ministry of Health and Wellness

“ In addition to this retention package, however we have other strategies in our retention system – our retention mechanism that we have put in place. We are now offering education opportunities to our nurses to specialize. So training opportunities at the master’s degree level at no cost to the nurse. So we provide the tuition and fees for them and they are bonded to the government for the period, since they received the scholarship. We also through the Ministry of Natural Resources and in collaboration with the Nurses Association, and I must applaud the nurses Association for this particular initiative, the one where they know are processing land title for nursing. So all of these things are part of the whole retention mechanism and strategy that the government of Belize is putting in place for our nurses.”

 

Though CEO Sharine Reyes says the KHMH nurses have been approved to benefit from the retention package, both Chief Nursing Officer Lizette Bell and former union President Andrew Baird says that is something to be confirmed in the hospital’s Collective Bargaining Agreement. 

 

Attention readers: This online newscast is a direct transcript of our evening television broadcast. When speakers use Kriol, we have carefully rendered their words using a standard spelling system.

 

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