The global data shows that confirmed Covid-19 cases as of Monday this week are a mere 12 percent of what they were at the same time last year, yet the situation facing the healthcare sector is just as dire as it was in 2020, if not worse. Aside from the Coronavirus and its latest Omicron variant, many countries have seen outbreaks of a respiratory syncytial virus as well as the annual flu, starting late last year.
Hospitals are stretched beyond capacity, just as they were during the height of the pandemic and staff are suffering burnout. As an example, it was reported that at one hospital in France, 56 of the 59 nurses were off sick at the end of last year. This occurred even as a large cohort of French family doctors (general practitioners) went on strike to demand better working conditions and an increase in their consultation fees; with some taking to the streets of Paris to protest.
On Monday this week, over 7,000 nurses from two New York City hospitals went on strike after negotiations between their union and the hospitals over nurse-to-patient ratios stalled. According to reports, the hospitals had offered nurses a 19.1 percent compounded pay hike, but apparently had not committed to the increased staffing requested that would not only keep nurses safe and healthy, but afford quality care to patients.
In the UK, more than 10,000 ambulance workers were scheduled to begin more strike action yesterday, after pay increase talks between their union and the health minister reached a stalemate on Monday. Furthermore, nurses in Britain are also scheduled to go on strike next Wednesday and Thursday as negotiations between their union and health authorities for better pay and working conditions have also hit a brick wall. This would be a follow up to the industrial action nurses and paramedics took last December for the same reasons.
In a report published in March last year, the World Health Organisation had repeated its warnings from the ‘State of the World Nursing Report 2020’, with regard to the global nursing shortage. Noting that there was a dearth of health workers in general, the report specified that nurses and midwives represented more than 50% of the current deficit in health workers. It had estimated then that nine million nurses and midwives were needed by 2030 to counteract the sector’s paucity.
Unfortunately, the Covid-19 pandemic only served to make the situation worse as it was surmised following a study in the US that one-third of nurses felt driven to leave the profession based on their experiences in 2020-2021. While there are no published figures as yet, given the current situation it would be safe to assume that at least some of them have already taken that path.
Closer to home, late last year, Barbados announced that it had recruited 122 Ghanaian nurses on two-year contracts to fill crucial vacancies in local hospitals. In July 2020, an initial 95 nurses from Ghana had travelled to Barbados for the same purpose. This is hardly surprising since the fact is that migrant nurses have been providing quality healthcare the world over, particularly in the UK and North America.
Guyana is hardly immune from the ongoing nursing crisis. As this newspaper has reported in various articles over the years, nurses are continually being actively recruited to leave this country. The cream of the crop are the ones lost to jobs in the UK and other countries where the compensation packages are beyond what they could dream of earning at home. In an interview early last year, pioneering nurse-educator Gwendolin Tross bemoaned the fact that excellent nurses were not receiving the recognition (read salary and benefits) that they deserved here and were therefore leaving. President of the Guyana Nurses Association Cleopatra Barkoye had previously made that same point. Sadly, not much has changed, nor is there any change imminent.
In his end-of-year report for 2022, Minister of Health Dr Frank Anthony boasted that close to $1 billion was spent on enhancing health facilities around the country. He spoke of the millions spent on digital X-ray equipment, medical theatres and the upgrading to smart hospitals. He was particularly effusive with regard to the refurbishing of maternal waiting homes for pregnant mothers in the hinterland areas. While these are all welcome investments, they have not changed the fact that pregnant women are continuing to die at an alarming rate at the country’s premier health institution, the Georgetown Public Hospital. There have already been two such deaths this year, which today is only 12 days old.
Dr Anthony has also disclosed lofty long-term plans for training more nurses – 1,000 a year, he was quoted as saying – without really addressing what will happen in the interim. There is a human resources crisis in the profession, which will be exacerbated by the expanded health services the minister boasted about. Will the government be looking to Africa like Barbados did? Or will it turn to its usual sources for medical relief – Cuba and China? The nation deserves some answers.
