THE ISLAND's nurses are expected to meet in January to decide whether to continue working directly with the Central Ministry of Health and the Public Services Commission, or end staff secondment which would see them getting permanent appointments with the four regional health authorities.
Nurses Association of Jamaica (NAJ) president, Iris Wilson, said Tuesday that an extraordinary general meeting will be called early next year to discuss the issues.
"We are planning to have a meeting at Arnold Road in Kingston again sometime in January. We will be calling an extraordinary general meeting and we will be inviting someone from the Ministry of Health, as well as from the four regions to speak to the nurses again. This current period of secondment ends in March and so I need to be sure that they understand what it is all about, before they decide. We have the impression that people were still confused," Mrs. Wilson said on Monday.
In November 2000, the majority of the island's nurses, midwives and junior doctors opted to remain on secondment to the Ministry of Health and the Public Services Commission, instead of accepting permanent appointments at various Regional Health Authorities (RHAs).
One reason for the decision which was given then, was that the Regional Health Authorities had not yet established a pension scheme, or formal terms of employment for those persons they intend to employ permanently.
Health officials had stated, in 2000, that extended secondment will give the 28 medically related bargaining units time to think about the issue carefully, as well as allow time to properly conduct the transfer of functions from the Office of the Services Commission to the Regional Health Authorities. Other choices offered to the associations included permanent appointment or resignation.
Mrs. Wilson also reported improvements in moves to appoint nurses islandwide to positions in which they have been acting for years. In October, Mrs Wilson prepared and sent a list of 15 names to the Health Ministry. Of that number, 10 nurses have been appointed since November, she said, adding that she was about to send off another list of names to the Ministry.
The NAJ president could not say how many nurses were still awaiting appointment because some health facilities have not submitted the information required.
But for those who did, she said that Ministry officials "have promised me that they would escalate it as much as possible. I have a lot more names but all the information is not here and it doesn't make sense to send it without the necessary information, so I am depending on the matrons to complete the information instead of just giving me a name," Mrs. Wilson said.
She had earlier outlined that nurses who were still acting in positions without appointments have been missing out on their annual increments, because increments start after appointment. She said that the NAJ has been told that the appointment of some nurses was taking long, because decentralisation had left the Services Commission with fewer personnel to do the necessary work.
The NAJ is also ensuring for the wants to make sure this year's batch of graduates are clear on what the NAJ expects of them. The Association met with them at its Arnold Road headquarters Tuesday to have motivational talks, as well as presentations on professionalism.
Mrs. Wilson said that the talk was being given because, "from time to time you hear of the attitudes of nurses and so forth. We just decided that with this batch of graduates we are going to meet with them and just tell them what is the expectation of the Nurses Association of Jamaica (and) have somebody speak to them about professionalism and have somebody give a little motivational talk."
