radhica.sookraj@guardian.co.tt
Although T&T’s unemployment rate has jumped to 5.30 per cent, director of health at the Southwest Regional Health Authority, Dr Albert Persad, says the authority is having a difficult time recruiting nursing staff.
Speaking at the third annual health fair at the Pleasantville Community Centre yesterday, Persad said recruiting nurses has become just as arduous as recruiting specialist doctors.
Saying the SWRHA has responsibility for over 600,000 people stretching as far as Icacos to Couva, Persad said, “We are finding it very difficult to recruit basic and general nursing staff. We need specialist nurses so if you have teenaged children or grandchildren let them know this could be career options.”
He added, “We also need physiotherapists, occupational therapists, psychiatric nurses, nutritionists, people to take out X-rays and these are viable careers that people can look at.”
He noted that the SWRHA could go on a “crusade” getting youths matched to prospective careers which are desperately needed in the SWRHA. Persad also said they were also looking to recruit two paediatricians to work in health centres.
Saying there were lots of people who had the capability of doing medical work, Persad said the SWRHA planned to open several new clinics which will feature mental health, child guidance, child development, senior citizens services and a specialist diabetes clinics, which required staffing.
He also recommended that the Ministry of Health be restructured into the Ministry of Health and Wellness. The new restructuring, Persad said, will enable the ministry to put systems in place for proactive health programmes. He said if people engaged in preventative care, there will be less burden on the nation’s hospitals. Persad said the San Fernando General Hospital has 700 beds, but on any given day there were 800 people needing bed space.
T&T’s unemployment rate was reported at 5.30 per cent in the last quarter of 2017. It ranks as the world’s 68th lowest recorded unemployment rate, having jumped from 4.5 in January 2017.
