Gopeesingh rejects TTNNA claims over nurse exits and ward conditions
NCRHA chair Dr Tim Gopeesingh denies TTNNA claims that three newly hired nurses quit over conditions at the new Adult Medical Ward.
JENSEN LA VENDE Se-nior Re-porter The North Cen-tral Re-gion-al Health Au-thor-i-ty (NCRHA) has strong-ly re-ject-ed claims cir-cu-lat-ing on so-cial me-dia that three re-cent-ly hired nurs-es re-signed due to con-di-tions at the Er-ic Williams Med-ical Sci-ences Com-plex (EWM-SC) in Mt Hope, in-sist-ing the de-par-tures were un-re-lat-ed to the new-ly opened Adult Med-ical Ward.. Re-spond-ing to the Trinidad and To-ba-go Na-tion-al Nurs-ing As-so-ci-a-tion’s (TTNNA) claims, NCRHA chair-man Dr Tim Gopeesingh said the res-ig-na-tions did not in-volve nurs-es
as-signed to the ward.. Speak-ing with Guardian Me-dia, Gopeesingh said, “Three nurs-es re-signed, none from the new ward.. One got em-ploy-ment at SWRHA as she was from South, the oth-er was do-ing her Mas-ters, had some fam-i-ly is-sues and re-signed, the third nurse al-so from South got called from SWRHA and she took the job.” His com-ments came as the NCRHA is-sued a me-dia re-lease on Sat-ur-day dis-miss-ing the claims as false and mis-lead-ing, and
re-ject-ing any sug-ges-tion that the res-ig-na-tions were linked to the op-er-a-tions or con-di-tions of the Adult Med-ical Ward at the EWM-SC.. The au-thor-i-ty said none of the nurs-es ref-er-enced in the so-cial me-dia claims was as-signed to or worked at the ward.. It added that the res-ig-na-tions stemmed from per-son-al cir-cum-stances, em-ploy-ment op-por-tu-ni-ties with-in an-oth-er Re-gion-al Health Au-thor-i-ty clos-er to home, and de-ci-sions to pur-sue fur-ther aca-d-e-m-ic stud-ies.. The NCRHA said the cir-cu-lat-ing in-for-ma-tion was
in-tend-ed to cre-ate alarm and mis-trust among staff and the pub-lic, and con-demned what it de-scribed as mis-in-for-ma-tion sur-round-ing the mat-ter.. It urged the pub-lic to re-ly on of-fi-cial com-mu-ni-ca-tion re-gard-ing is-sues af-fect-ing the au-thor-i-ty.. The NCRHA did not iden-ti-fy the nurs-es in-volved or state when the res-ig-na-tions took ef-fect.. The state-ment fol-lows claims by the TTNNA that three nurs-es re-signed less than a month af-ter be-ing hired, cit-ing poor work-ing con-di-tions and un-safe staffing
lev-els.. The TTNNA al-so ques-tioned re-cruit-ment fig-ures, say-ing it be-lieved few-er than the 61 nurs-es re-port-ed had ac-tu-al-ly been hired.. In its state-ment, the TTNNA fur-ther al-leged that some new hires were as-signed to the Adult Med-ical Ward 4, which it said was pre-vi-ous-ly con-fig-ured as a psy-chi-atric ward, and raised con-cerns about train-ing and pa-tient care con-di-tions.. Mean-while, on-go-ing con-cerns have al-so been raised by men-tal health staff about the re-lo-ca-tion of psy-chi-atric ser-vices
from the EWM-SC to Ari-ma, in-clud-ing re-duced bed ca-pac-i-ty, staffing short-ages, and safe-ty risks for both pa-tients and work-ers.. The work-ers, who spoke on the con-di-tion of anonymi-ty, said the orig-i-nal ward held 25 beds while the new ward on-ly holds ten.. They added that the psych ward at Ari-ma is not on a ground floor mak-ing it a safe-ty risk for the pa-tients.. “They (Ari-ma) hav-ing is-sues ad-mit-ting sui-cide pa-tients.. We still have a
whole catch-ment of pa-tients that can-not go to Ari-ma, if the ten beds hap-pen to be avail-able.” An-oth-er work-er said over-time was dis-al-lowed on the ward since it was “down-sized.” The work-ers said they need ad-e-quate staff as that ward can be volatile with many of the nurs-es be-ing women.. Added to that, there is no dif-fer-en-ti-a-tion be-tween males and fe-males gen-er-al-ly on the psych ward, the of-fi-cers said, mak-ing man-age-ment of such wards dif-fi-cult.
NCRHA, TTNNA, nurse resignations, Adult Medical Ward, Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex, Arima psychiatric services, staffing conditions