Nurse Baird: “Retention Package Should Be For All Nurses”

The government says its new nurse retention package is designed to stop the bleeding, but critics warn it may be stitching up only part of the wound. Former Nurses Association executive Andrew Baird says the plan focuses too narrowly on public sector nurses, leaving out entire groups that keep Belize’s healthcare system running every day. According to Baird, if the goal is to protect healthcare nationwide, the benefits must include nurses at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital, those working in NHI clinics, and nurses in the private sector. Leaving them out, he warns, could spark a damaging ripple effect, nurses shifting jobs internally, positions opening up elsewhere, and an even smoother path for trained professionals to leave Belize altogether for better pay overseas.

 

Andrew Baird, Former Executive, Nurses Association of Belize

“I believe when the Nurses Association negotiates, they should negotiate on behalf of all nurses within the country of Belize, not just for nurses within the public service. The Minister or the CEO of the Ministry of Health should ensure that when they take these things to Cabinet or these bills are passed that it include the private sector nurses as well because then what you would have is under paid private sector nurses who will then leave the private sector to come to the public, which would create its own problem for the private hospital. But to have a balance playing field, certainly it should be inclusive for our nurses. In reference to the KHMH. If we are not included, certainly it will pose a serious threat to the cross sector movement of nurses because we work twice as hard as any other nurses throughout the country for the simple reason that as the national tertiary hospital, we look after the country and we also serve purpose as a secondary hospital for the District of Belize. So certainly you will have a movement of nurses from our hospital, the national referral, to the public. You already have that occurring for other reasons.”

 

Baird’s message is blunt: retain some nurses, and you risk losing the rest.

 

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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