Dear Editor,
We the nurses of the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation wish to respond to a letter in the Stabroek News edition of October 7th, 2020 penned by Dr. Jerry Jailall `GPSU leadership should not use the nurses as pawns in its political games’. Dr Jailall who of course is not a nurse, has taken upon himself the job of advising on nursing issues in the life and death struggle in which we are engaged with an uncaring employer. We wish to state from the outset that we are very supportive, respectful and appreciative of the Guyana Public Service Union’s action on our behalf.
We would also like to add that even though the majority of workers protesting were nurses, other categories of employees also stood with us. So this is not just a nurses’ activity, it is in fact a health workers’ activity.
Whatever the new government has done, the one thing it has not done is to come out and listen to our
concerns. In the two-plus weeks we have been out in the sun for our rights all we have heard are charges about illegal actions, and that our actions appear to be political. No-one is talking about our dilemma. Neither is Dr. Jailall.
The evidence will show that the GPSU has been engaging the Ministry of Public Health and the GPHC Administration over an extended period on these issues. For example, on 23rd April, 2020 representatives of the GPSU met with members of GPHC administration, including Brigadier (Ret’d) George Lewis, Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Fawcett Jeffrey, Director of Medical and Professional Services and a host of other high functionaries of GPHC.
Among issues discussed at that meeting were: Security, Personal Protective Equip-ment, Exposure to positive COVID-19 patients and Risk Allowance for all staff members.
GPHC chose to give a risk allowance to a few workers and ignore several other categories of workers. Persons such as Ward Maids, Hospital Attendants, Labora-tory Technicians, Pharmacists and Phar-macy, Assistants, Operating Room Tech-nicians, Orthopaedic Technicians, Bio-medical Technicians, Ward Clerks, Stores Clerks, Laundry Staff, Kitchen Staff, Cleaners in general, all hospital workers are at high risk of contracting COVID-19 and taking it home to their families. For Dr. Jailall to stay from wherever he resides and pronounce on what affects nurses and who should represent them in these issues speaks to his presumption to pretend to know of things which he hasn’t a clue. Dr. Jailall should be informed that Health Care Workers initiated the activities in which we are involved. We recognized that our employer was not responding to our pleas so we turned to our representative union, the Guyana Public Service Union.
The leaders of the union, unlike our employer, intensified their support for us in our fight for fairness and protection.
Recently, many of our colleagues have been testing COVID-19 positive, and to hear supposedly intellectually learned persons trying to blame the staff for getting infected is most disheartening and disappointing. What these persons are not telling the public is that health care workers are unknowingly working with COVID-19 patients, only to be told later to go and be tested and proceed and self-quarantine. No one appears concerned about our families. We are the ones who are at risk. We, like nurses and health care workers all over the world understand this risk. We will continue to fight for ourselves and families. Dr. Jailall is free to do the same for his family, but he is in no position to tell us that we are pawns. He comes over as the one who has a political axe to grind. He should edify himself, broaden his narrow political outlook, think a little and stay out of our business.
Yours faithfully,
Signed by 110 nurses
