Additional nurses coming soon for Dialysis Unit

Additional manpower is expected within the next couple of days, to assist the nurses at the dialysis unit at the Mount St. John’s Medical Centre.
The nurses at the unit have been on a go-slow since Tuesday, complaining of being overworked due to understaffing.
Minister of Health, Wellness and the Environment, Molwyn Joseph, said he had given instructions that the matter be urgently addressed and there should be a resolution in the coming days.
“I understand the feeling of the nurses and we are moving speedily to resolve the issue. I know that we had requested six nurses from Cuba. My understanding is that they should start arriving here shortly … two of them should be here, today [Friday], or the next few days we will be able to see an improvement in the situation,” he said.
Joseph, who praised the work of the nurses at the unit, said he did not know what led to the delay in obtaining additional manpower to better cope with the workload.
“The dialysis unit is a 24-hour service we provide here, and we would not wish for our nurses to be overworked so I treat it as a top priority in terms of getting a quick solution,” the minister stated.
Nurses at the unit have been complaining that the number of patients has increased considerably over the last couple of weeks and government has been slow in delivering on its promise to adequately staff the unit with six additional specialist trained nurses in dialysis care from Cuba.
They also claim that they have not been given the assistance of an orderly which they say is critical for moving patients.
There are over 90 patients currently receiving dialysis – 44 patients are dialysed each day – with a staff complement of eight, working 12-hour round the clock shifts.