Not true!

Contrary to reports being bandied about in the public domain, Ghanian nurses recruited to work here will not be paid more than their Barbadian counterparts.

Seeking to set the record straight, Chairman of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) Juliette Bynoe-Sutherland insisted that all nurses are paid a salary based on a scale of qualifications and experience, and the same would apply for those recruited from the West African country.

“People have said they are going to be paid different and better. That is not the case. That would be an industrial relations nightmare as you could imagine. There is a scale for nursing and you go based on your years of qualifications. So if you come from the Geriatric Hospital or wherever and you have a number of years, there is a scale where pay is carefully worked out, so it will be a similar thing. There is no additional pay,” she insisted.

Bynoe-Sutherland said the difference would occur where Ghanian nurses would receive an annual gratuity instead of a pension, in a similar manner as all contracted hospital workers.

The Chairman recently led a team in Ghana to conduct the recruitment drive where some 115 nurses were interviewed and expressed satisfaction with the quality of the caregivers, many of whom were specialised in various areas.

“Ghana has specialist registers that we do not have here, so we were able to recruit nurses that have beyond post-basic qualifications that are actually certified in areas like ophthalmology, critical care et cetera. So we will have the opportunity to bring nurses of specialist skills and because it is a government to government programme, they will be having the same salaries and conditions of work as Barbadian nurses,” she added.

Speaking moments after cutting the ribbon to the new common room for general workers at the QEH yesterday, she said, “We are really pleased with the quality of nursing we saw in Ghana. There are solid nurses and I think they will be a compliment to the nursing team we have here and we will be looking forward to welcoming them,” and Bynoe-Sutherland also noted that 70 of these caregivers would be selected initially.