Reprinted from Caribbean Net News
caribbeannetnews.com
CASTRIES, St Lucia: Due to migration brought on by the poaching of nurses by more developed nations, the nursing profession in St Lucia is now in "crisis", forcing the country's health authorities to take urgent steps to deal with the matter.
In addressing the country's Parliament back in April, Minister with responsibility for Health, Human Services, Gender Relations and Family Affairs, Damian Greaves, openly admitted that nurse migration has become one of the urgent areas impeding quality health delivery and, as a result, officials are now looking at the possibility of doubling the number of nurses being trained, hoping this will solve the problem.
Officials told Caribbean Net News that there are also plans to offer several special incentives for professionals, to prevent them from giving in to the attractive offers dangled before their eyes by rich countries such as Canada, the USA and others.
A number of nurses who have migrated told Caribbean Net News that poor working conditions, low wages, slow promotion and lack of respect (especially among politicians) are among the mains reasons why they sought "greener pastures".
Authorities in St. Lucia are keen on doing everything to build and maintain a professional health service, as the situation in the country has been changing rapidly due to the rise in crime.
"Right now we are seeing a lot of patients… gunshot wounds, stab wounds… we are seeing a lot of abortions," nursing director, Henrietta Vaval, was quoted by the media as saying.
One doctor at Victoria Hospital told Caribbean Net News that the situation has become even more difficult due to the problems caused by HIV/AIDS and the special needs of people living with the disease.
He said that government has been forced to recall a number of retired nurses to assist and the Dr. Kenny Anthony Administration is said to be seriously considering importing trained nurses from other developing countries.
A recent damning report by the Caribbean Commission of Human Development (CCHD) revealed that over a quarter million Caribbean people will die as a result of HIV/AIDS if currents trends are not checked.
Experts told Caribbean Net News that children will account for 3% of the new HIV/AIDS cases in the region over the next five years.
The report also had some not so pleasant things to say about health services in the region, pointing out that in today's computerised world with its vast improvement in information technology, enough attention has not been paid to the collection of important data from "health and related sectors that allow adequate forecasting and planning".
Information systems are fragmented and, "believe it or not", only one country has systematic collection of social data regular household surveys.
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