Minister of State in the Ministry of Health, Wellness, the Environment and Civil Service Affairs Michael Joseph says the government’s recruitment of nurses from Ghana is being funded under the same model long used to support the Cuban medical brigade, rejecting claims that the arrangement adds new financial pressure.
Speaking on Twin Island Media, Joseph said the Ghanaian nurses programme mirrors the Cuban model and is being financed by the Government of Antigua and Barbuda. “It’s literally taking a cookie-cutter programme that we have with the Cubans and replicating it with the Ghanaians,” he said.
Joseph explained that the government has historically covered the costs associated with overseas medical professionals and that the same approach applies to the Ghanaian nurses. He said accommodation is being provided through multiple government-leased apartments, noting that similar housing arrangements were made for Cuban medical staff. “Cubans, when they came here, we had to provide them with apartments, and it’s the same thing,” he said.
He added that the recruitment of Ghanaian nurses was not a sudden shift in policy but part of an ongoing effort to address staffing shortages in the public health system, while maintaining continuity in how international medical partnerships are funded.
The programme has generated public debate in recent weeks, particularly over cost and sustainability, but Joseph said the funding framework remains unchanged from what has been used for years under the Cuban medical programme.
VIDEO: Minister of State Michael Joseph says the Ghanaian nurses programme is funded under the same model as the Cuban medical brigade, with no additional cost to the government.
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Nursery
It is extremely unfortunate that the government can find funds to remuneration so many nurses and are unwilling to offer our local nurses better working conditions for decades. How can it be the same arrangement when nursing service remuneration has increased and the Cuban nurses arrangement has existed over twenty years ago. Are you saying the nurses are being under paid, what are you hiding? Was the Nurses Association made aware of these arrangements, to ensure that the salaries and benefits match that, of their members? Why does these people continue to treat nurses as if they weren’t trained and are not highly educated professionals. Mowlyn Joseph mentioned in his budget speech how many doctors they sent to train and how many specialists they have on staff. How many nurses did you train? How many nurses were sent to specialize? Nurses have to pay for their own training.
Were these nurses vetted by the Nursing Council and received licenses to work in Antigua, as other nurses around the world need licenses to practice. The training and examinations are different in the Caribbean.
Was the nursing council among the team of individuals who travelled to Ghana to recruit these nurses, review and approve their nursing training and license?
The local nurses contractual agreement was signed over a year ago, are they receiving their increases in salary and benefits?
I hope the local nurses walk out when the highly qualified nurses, who are here to train us walk into the clinical areas and you will see who you have and who you don’t have. Stop abusing the nursing profession and treat us with respect and dignity.
When is molyn going to give up his ministry?
Eh!
When?
When he turns 92?
Why doesn’t he give a younger Person a chance to run the ministry?
Eh
When?
When pigs fly?
Which is never????
Oh lawd🤔🤔
The ABLP should change its name to the Anti-Labor Political Party
When an employee is unwilling to pay its trained workers a fair living wage; and it resorts to hiring individuals who are willing to take less pay.
In the labour movement these lesser paid workers are known as scabs.
This Government whose roots are in the labor movements, has made the hiring of scabs a policy to undermine local nurses.
To say that It’s literally taking a cookie-cutter programme that they had with the Cubans and replicating it with the Ghanaians may not be a financial problem; but the continuing of a policy of using scabs to undermine local professionals.
In one of the local papers this week the Ghanaian nurses said that they were glad for the training their placements in Antigua offer and the opportunity to get an income.
We were under the impression that they were already trained and were now on the job. What is this? Are we going to spend money to train them at the expense of our local nurses? Will they too disappear in a couple months’ time not to be heard of again?
Mr Browne, why do you keep treating the Antigua people like the fools they are? Can’t you at least show some respect for the people who have made you $700m?
Once you’re a new employee and especially in a situation such as this, no matter how knowledgeable you are, one must still go through training. We are a small third world country, and in this hemisphere career nurses, because of their great need, will be always tempted to migrate to greener pastures because of the offers extended out by the more financially developed countries, offers that although we may try our hardest to equal, will still be considered not good enough, and this can be also said to many other careers.
Opposition is once again fighting a loosing case, and by the way how many government minister are you gonna ask to resign? which will never happen. Then you have Ms Quinn asking about the difference in language, overlooking the fact that not only Ghanaian are some of the most intelligent population in the world, but you will find a high percentage of them speak English, and hard working is what they do.
There is definitely a big difference between the Cuban medical brigade and the Ghanaian nurses. It was not until the USA government under this Donald Trump administration and specifically Marco Rubio as secretary of state threatened to bring sanctions to countries that use the Cuban Medical Brigades what statements were made by the Antigua government to start paying the Cuban equivalent to their Antiguan counterparts. Barbudas on the other hand was quick to defend its policy and made it clear that they were playing the Cuban medical professional the same as their Barbadian counterparts, so these accusations were not for them. So the question is , did Antigua Govern follow through on it promise to pay the Cuban professional or was it if they did too late.
The arrangement with the Ghanaian medical professionals are being paid equally from the onset. They are individuals contracted, like their Antiguan counterparts. The difference and understandable so they are offered accommodation and traveling etc. This is a normal practice when you recruit workers for outside. Take for example the footballers that are recruited for outside Antigua to play for Premier Devision football in Antigua get free accommodation, meal and transportation allowance and get paid for the services. Their Antiguan counterparts do paid or any of the privileges.
I will like to also add a bit of information. That is the Cuban medical brigade have been the pillar rock of Ghana medical services. The Cuban government has been assisting not only Ghana but most African nations Medical assistance and even scholarships in Cuba for medical students. In fact when there are deadly outbreaks of diseases to include the Ebola, the countries like Ghana almost totally depends on the Cuban medical support. Just like when we had the outbreak of the Covid 19 and many of our medical professionals were scared. The Cubans stepped up.
So we have thrown the Cubans under the bus , we have signed to accept third party deportees and still are worst off for it. The other OECS countries have held unto the Cuban medical support system.
Then there is a high level of corruption in terms of their housing. The Cubans were accommodated by the government of Antigua. Hundreds of thousands of dollars in rent went into the pockets of their Land lord- guess who . They were staying in Jennings Village at the owned by which politician????? The answer is GB.
Sorry my predictive- not Barbuda but Barbados.
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