Guyana grappling with major shortage of nurses

…seeks immediate help from Cuba

With shortages of nurses in the hundreds at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) alone – forcing some of these healthcare workers to double up on shifts – Guyana has turned to Cuba for help in dealing with this crisis.
President Dr Irfaan Ali told reporters during a press conference on Wednesday that he has already spoken to the Cuban Ambassador to Guyana, Jorge Francisco Soberón Luis, on the possibility of that country sending nurses to Guyana to help fill the gap.
“One of the main issues facing the region now is the outward movement of our nurses and health workers,” President Ali lamented during the press conference. “I met with a number of nurses at Georgetown Hospital, and they were so happy for the work they’re doing that some of them are doubling up on shifts because of the shortage. When I spoke to the administration of Georgetown Public Hospital, they now have hundreds of nurses short of their full complement…,” he explained.
While it has embarked on a number of training programmes aimed at recruiting more nurses, the Head of State said, Government has reached out to Cuba for immediate relief.
“…to see if we can get Cuban nurses to come into the system now to help to fill that gap, because of the tremendous shortage that we have,” he explained.
President Ali has said that, currently, there are more than 1200 Guyanese registered in nursing programmes nationally. He also noted that Government has been ramping up its training programmes in order to expand and improve its human resource assets in the healthcare sector.
He said that, at the GPHC, there are 16 post graduate programmes, and this year another will be added to specialise more doctors in the field of neurology. Additionally, he said there are plans to increase the training for various categories of doctors, including surgeons, gynecologists and paediatricians.
Specifically for nurses, the Head of State spoke of the recently-launched hybrid nursing programme which is intended to increase the training of nurses from 150-200 per year to between 1000-1500 per year. President Ali also mentioned plans to offer specialised training for nurses through a post-graduate programme.
He also spoke about the need to train more trauma nurses. “…that is why we’re moving massively on this training programme for nurses and bringing more nurses in the system, because there’s shortage in Canada, UK, Europe, US…so the whole world now is on an active drive of recruiting nurses all over,” President Ali expressed.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has documented that there is a global shortage of health workers, in particular nurses and midwives, who represent more than 50 per cent of the current shortage of health workers. For all countries to reach Sustainable Development Goal 3 on health and well-being, WHO estimates that the world would need an additional 9 million nurses and midwives by the year 2030.
“Nurses and midwives are central to primary healthcare, and are often the first and sometimes the only health professional that people see; and the quality of their initial assessment, care and treatment is vital,” the WHO outlined.
Meanwhile, the International Council of Nurses (ICN) has said the worldwide shortage of nurses should be treated as a global health emergency. (G11)