“We hoped that their hiring would have been fast-tracked so that we could help the present situation”
NASSAU, BAHAMAS — Consultant Physicians Staff Association (CPSA) President Dr Sabriquet Pinder-Butler said yesterday that while Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis’ announcement of additional hires of healthcare workers was “good to know”, the lack of details or a timeline make it challenging to strategically prepare for the continued surge.
“We are appreciative and grateful for the commitment to bring those persons because we really need the help already,” Pinder-Butler told Eyewitness News.
“It is really good to know when they will actually have those persons onboard because we continue to have more and more cases and we haven’t been able to fill that void as yet.
“We were certainly grateful to hear that, but we would have hoped we would have heard when the ‘soon’ would be or what that would look like.
“We knew we were going to have this deficit for a while.
“We were already aware that the government officials and the leads in the hospital were aware as well.
“We hoped that their hiring would have been fast-tracked so that we could help the present situation, which is really above capacity, especially when we consider that we are also going into a holiday weekend and we have noted a trend of increasing cases as well.”
In a national address on Wednesday night, the prime minister said in order to augment the staffing dedicated to the COVID response, an additional 49 medical staff and 111 nurses and nursing support staff “will be hired shortly” at a cost of $7.2 million.
The prime minister also called on all retired nurses, doctors and pharmacists to come forward and assist in what he called “our time of need”.
The prime minister also announced Samaritan’s Purse will expand its medical tents for an additional 18 beds, beginning today, to improve the COVID management care delivery.
While many suspected increased restrictions were forthcoming, the prime minister did not announce additional measures, instead urging residents to take personal responsibility, to limit social interactions and to adhere to all existing health protocols.
Yesterday, Pinder-Butler said it was unfortunate that the “good news” was absent of specifics, and the senior physicians who are actively involved hope the numbers quoted by the prime minister include hires they previously asked about, but it remains uncertain.
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