A small group of nurses staged a protest on Monday outside of the venue where the Ministry of Health and Wellness was hosting an orientation event for new health care professionals. Some of the new hires were nurses from Ghana. The protesting nurses lamented that they remain unregularized in the public service while foreign nurses were being processed.
When asked for comment on the issue outside of the House of Assembly on Wednesday Minister of Labour and the Public Service, the Hon. Pia Glover-Rolle explained that there is a difference in the process of regularizing foreign workers and assured that the grievances of the local nurses were being addressed.
She said, “there is a different process between what happens for our local and our contracted nurses. They are two separate processes and they’re handled in two separate ways. Yes, the Commission is also involved but there was a facilitation of the process for the local nurses that has began and is almost at completion.”
The timely vetting of nurses was also said to cause a delay in the regularization of the nurses. Minister of National Security, the Hon. Wayne Munroe explained that the process is carried out by the Royal Bahamas Police Force Security & Intelligence Branch (SIB). “When people allege that the vetting is delayed I ask them to send me the names. Sometimes SIB discovers that they have not received any request for the vetting of that person. Sometimes they discover that they have received the vetting and they have sent it on to the Public Service. So if somebody is saying that there is outstanding by the Security & Intelligence Branch of the Royal Bahamas Police Force I would invite them to send me the names so that I can follow up.”
