BASSETERRE, St. Kitts - PRIME MINISTER Dr. the Hon. Timothy Harris has disclosed that the Federation’s nurses would soon be in line to receive overtime pay.
This disclosure came while he gave the feature address at the opening of the Oncology Centre at the JNF Hospital on Tuesday (Dec. 6), where a number of nurses and other health practitioners had gathered.
Dr. Harris in his speech indicated that he recognized that a number of people in the health sector are overworked and grossly underpaid. And to this end, provisions would be implemented for those in that sector.
“Some of us in healthcare and other sectors, we believe, are overworked and underpaid, and some of you are...I admit. And in the 2017 Budget we are going to make a special provision for nurses and other healthcare people to get overtime pay,” Dr. Harris said to the applause of the nurses and doctors present.
A number of nurses and other practitioners in the sector have complained about the long hours they would have worked with no proper compensation for the additional time they spent on the job.
In recent times, those persons coming under the banner of Emergency Medical Services (EMS) complained about the times in which they were made to work.
In some instances they were made to work for 12-hours a day, and in special circumstances they were made to give added hours.
SKNVibes understands that this problem was recently rectified after personnel of the EMS were made to work overtime for just over a year.
Last year, Government officials had indicated that there was no shortage of EMS technicians, but a source had recently confirmed that additional personnel were acquired.
Dr. Harris stressed that the overtime payment to those in the health sector is “long overdue, but better late than never”.
