120 Ghanaian Nurses to Arrive Next Weekend to Support Public Health System
One hundred and twenty nurses from the Republic of Ghana are scheduled to arrive in Antigua and Barbuda next weekend, as the government moves to ease staffing shortages in the public healthcare system.
The nurses are expected to arrive on January 23, according to Director General of Communications in the Prime Minister’s Office, Maurice Merchant, who addressed the matter during Thursday’s post-Cabinet media briefing.
“Cabinet welcomed the arrival of 120 nurses from the Republic of Ghana,” Merchant said, adding that they “will serve within the public health care system of Antigua and Barbuda.”
Merchant said the nurses will be deployed primarily at the Celeste Bird Medical Centre, as well as in community health clinics, schools and other health institutions.
“These are highly trained, qualified individuals coming out of Ghana,” he said. “Most of them are experienced nurses and they are expected to make an impact within the healthcare delivery system in Antigua and Barbuda.”
He said the additional staff are expected to reduce pressure on existing healthcare workers, noting that Antigua and Barbuda continues to lose nurses to overseas recruitment.
“On a weekly basis, our nurses migrate,” Merchant said. “Our nurses are being poached because of their standards, because of how qualified they are.”
Merchant said the recruitment of Ghanaian nurses forms part of a contractual arrangement between the two countries and is one element of the government’s response to ongoing workforce shortages.
“Importing of nurses from Ghana is one aspect. Training is another aspect,” he said, pointing to ongoing efforts to train local nurses through the University of the West Indies Five Islands Campus.
He said the government’s long-term objective remains self-sufficiency in healthcare staffing, but acknowledged that immediate intervention is required to maintain service delivery.
“There is a shortage,” Merchant said. “The government believes that in order to make sure that the health care system remains able to provide the service it intends to for the public of Antigua and Barbuda, there is the need for nurses.”
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Who voted the experience of these nurses? Here we go again! We will receive more than we expect. Outta de frying pan inna de fire.
Will the DUNCE EMPTYHEAD Pearl “FOOTS” Quinn be there to welcome them ???
Adding my 2 pence here… This is essentially how the US and other developed countries grew… With the talent of others from other countries. See it as a way to grow and the way forward, rather than the way backwards. Backwards is not having the talent and the manpower, and doing nothing about it because you’re too proud to get help from the outside. Think that through.
A new woman for Pringle in the mix? Nurses are supposed to be tendse and compassionate
@Hmmm.
We understand that folly, so do not sit there and try to insult the intelligence of the voting public, or are you?
I’ve said many times that this Government have some good Ideas, even Cutie that I bash over the head sometimes.
Not all of them are half dunce, but what we the voters cannot accept anymore, is the lack of transparency and the way they just force things on the electorate with no proper explanation.
They simple just cannot be trusted. That’s the biggest issue here.
And if you’re not looking for accountability in government,cell fine, just come out and be that, and just stop trying to confuse the people.
This administration is all over the damn place. Dealing with them is like fighting the wind on calm day, so imagine when it gets really gusty, like it has been for the past 5 years now?
And I leave you with this.
You shouldn’t just build to be progressive, you have to also build to sustain.
Think that through.
@Hmmm.
We understand that fully, so do not sit there and try to insult the intelligence of the voting public, or are you?
I’ve said many times that this Government have some good Ideas, even Cutie that I bash over the head sometimes.
Not all of them are half dunce, but what we the voters cannot accept anymore, is the lack of transparency and the way they just force things on the electorate with no proper explanation.
They simple just cannot be trusted. That’s the biggest issue here.
And if you’re not looking for accountability in government,then fine, just come out and be that, and just stop trying to confuse the public.
This administration is all over the damn place. Dealing with them is like fighting the wind on a calm day, so imagine when it gets really gusty, like it has been for the past 5 years now?
And I leave you with this.
You shouldn’t just build to be progressive, you have to also build to sustain.
Think that through.
Pearl will be headed to the airport with her translator. Then again its probably needed considering her challenge with English
@the Perl Quinn Misynogist,
You are displaying the behavior of a sick puppy that squirts and squeals at rejection.
Are you in such a bad mental state that most article trigger your Peal Quinn bashing state of mind
This is concerning the government excuse that on “a weekly basis “our nurses migrate, Our nurses are being poached because of their standards, because of how qualified they are”
Thats is the justification for the policy position to import nurses from Ghana.
Obviously Antiguan nurses are paid better and most importantly provide them path to a green card and citizenship.
How come no one poaches Antiguan lawyers? Trump visa actions stop the Recruitment of Antigua nurses
@tenman
Unlike the Caribbean islands affected by the new immigrants order; hospitals are private, with The Caribbean coukd have highly specialized care located in one of two islands.
If this was the case we could have told Marco Rubio bring a stop to the recruitment of our nurses even before the current crisis started.
Marco Rubio a white of Cuban descent and Trump wane be would have gladly obliged.
Why?
They would have gladly cut off our black nurses path to lawful employment then a green and later citizenship.
Given the SLBMC is an integral part of the ABLP corruption machinery no different from many of the other Caribbean countries affected; that would be self defeating.
It may seem far fetched for you since you are a beneficiary of the Caribbean corrupt machinery.
To be focused on MsWuinn is a way of changing the narrative; deflecting and keep the corruption machinery humming
This decision exposes everything that is wrong with the leadership of this country. Instead of fixing the crisis they created, the government is importing a band-aid from Ghana while ignoring the Antiguan nurses who built our health system and are now being pushed out by poverty wages and unbearable conditions.
The truth is simple: our nurses are not leaving because they hate Antigua and Barbuda — they are leaving because this government refuses to pay them what they deserve. After years of service many cannot pay rent, feed their families, or see a future at Mount St. John’s. Rather than address that injustice, the Prime Minister and his Health Minister, Molywyn Joseph, must explain why local nurses are being treated as second-class while millions are found to recruit replacements from overseas.
This is reckless policy. Money will be spent on recruitment, relocation, housing and contracts for outsiders while the very people who know our communities are treated as disposable. What message does that send to young Antiguans studying nursing? That their own government has no faith in them.
Minister Joseph should face the nurses publicly and answer one question: why not improve salaries and conditions first instead of importing workers to mask your failure? A sovereign nation should build its health care on its own professionals, not on political gimmicks and foreign dependency.
This administration has turned its back on local workers and surrendered common sense in the process. Today it is nurses; tomorrow it will be another sector. Antiguans deserve better than this. Improve the salaries. Improve the conditions. Respect the nurses who are already here and invite home those in the diaspora. Until that happens, every recruitment drive will be another confession of failure by this government.
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