Bernard says MOHW working to Resolve Understaffed Hospital

The issue of low staff has been a growing concern in the health sector for years. And now, with the government’s plan to construct hospitals across the country, the question of who will staff these hospitals arises. Minister of Health and Wellness, Kevin Bernard, says that the ministry is working towards creating environments that will attract Belizean medical professionals to work in the country.

 

Kevin Bernard, Minister, MOWH

“As usual, there’s always staffing needs. We continuously look at advertising for posts. They, whenever the new hospitals are built in these areas, those are the first that will be staffed. The other hospitals, for example, Western Region, where it is, those will continue to provide primary care service. But gradually, we have to ensure That the tertiary facilities are the ones that will be the priority areas that we’ll have to. Now, it’s a known fact that it’s across the region, across the world, even in the big United States of America, where there’s a shortage of about sixty thousand nurses in, in the United States. In big United States, what happened to our small country? So when they are short, they poach the nurses.  from our countries in the region. And so we have to continuously put in measures in place to retain our staff. And that’s one of the reason why, when you look at the compendium of allowances for nurses and our health professionals, we’re trying to ensure that we create a package that will see them staying in our country to provide service, as opposed to leaving the country for other better packages that they offer, because they offer some of these people fancy packages. And I understand for example, in the U.K., they offer them house, they offer them scholarships, they offer them all sorts of things for the entire family. We can’t afford all of that, but we have to make sure that there is that. And I know that for the most of the persons who stay in this country, because they are committed to this country, they want to see our country better, they want to see better healthcare and they have given their life in support of service for this country in terms of the healthcare profession. And so we continue to look at those things. And there’s always, there will always be these challenges, but we have to make sure that there’s always planning in place to ensure that we have the adequate staff, at least, to provide the services that are required for Belizean people.”