By AVA TURNQUEST

Tribune Chief Reporter

aturnquest@tribunemedia.net

LOOMING industrial action from the Bahamas Nurses Union could further cripple the country’s public healthcare system, with labour officials yesterday urging the government to immediately meet demands.

With the Bahamas Doctors Union strike languishing on through the weekend, Labour Director John Pinder told The Tribune further industrial unrest from nurses could prove critical.

Meanwhile, Health Minister Dr Duane Sands yesterday stressed decisions must be made in the best interest of the country – and not an individual special interest group.

Dr Sands was responding to criticisms from BDU President Dr Melisande Bassett, who told The Tribune her union was disappointed with the level of concern demonstrated for doctors by Dr Sands.

Dr Sands said: “The Bahamian public wants to know that if a loved one is ill, or if they are sick that they can get the healthcare services that they rightly deserve and that they paid for, and we are going to seek to make sure that that happens. We continue to try to get doctors back to work, and so far they are not back to work.

“This is not about me or any allegiance to any particular group,” he continued.

“Yes, I am a physician, I’ve been a physician for 40 plus years but I have sworn an oath to defend the interests of the people of the Bahamas and I put that first. I have a duty to protect the health interests of the people of this country…not the interests of any particular group and as such I don’t believe those two issues are asynchronous. So, protecting the interest of people also protects the interests of physicians.”

The government’s ‘showdown’ on Saturday morning with seven public sector unions was said to be frank, candid and revealing, but it is unclear how the informative session will influence negotiations.

“These are challenging decisions,” Dr Sands continued, “I support the right of the (BDU) to stand for the concerns and the benefits of their union members but they are not the only union in the country, or the only people in the country and so while we want to be as generous as possible to them – tomorrow we have the nurses.”

He added: “We have to look at this thing holistically, taking the concerns of the entire population and relate it to the ability of the public purse to be able to underwrite any concessions that are made.”

For his part, Mr Pinder told The Tribune the BNU outlined “serious, legitimate concerns” in Saturday’s omnibus meeting, adding he did not understand why critical health workers could not be paid in a timely manner.

“I would hope that the government recognises the importance of the nurses in the healthcare system,” Mr Pinder said, “and do as best they can to satisfy them. The nurses (union) president had very serious legitimate concerns. I don’t know why is it that these nurses who are so important to the healthcare system (are) not getting paid in a timely fashion.”

Mr Pinder added: “I advised the government to deal with that ASAP, that needs to be dealt with immediately. I think the nurses president did a very good case, and I’m sure the minister of health wants to ensure those nurses are properly paid. He is certainly concerned nurses are not being paid in a timely manner.”

Nurses overwhelmingly voted to take industrial action during a strike poll held in December, after the government refused to give the BNU a strike certificate for its first strike poll staged several months earlier in June.

“She has been very, very restrained,” said Paul Maynard, president of the Bahamas Electrical Workers Union. Mr Maynard served as acting president of the National Congress of Trade Unions (NCTU) in Saturday’s meeting.

“As a union president I must admire her,” Mr Maynard continued, speaking of BNU President Amancha Williams, “she has shown total restraint for what they are going through. In the meeting yesterday (Saturday), she had me close to tears.”

A central issue levelled by the BNU on Saturday is the non-payment of nurses – some of whom completed training but had not received salaries for some 18 months.

“For me that’s too long,” Mr Pinder said yesterday. “They have a strike certificate. I don’t know what their plan of action would be, but I am sure that the government is quite aware of the threats being made by them and in their wisdom will look at this matter as a matter of urgency to assure they are satisfied.”

Ms Williams did not return calls placed up to press time.

Junior doctors of the Bahamas Doctors Union (BDU) on New Providence and Grand Bahama withdrew their services on Wednesday, and industrial action remains in effect today.

The BNU stood in solidarity with the BDU during Wednesday’s demonstration, alongside representatives from the Bahamas Public Service Union, the Union of Tertiary Educators of the Bahamas, Union of Public Officers and the Trade Union Congress.

On Wednesday, Ms Williams threatened related health service unions would coordinate efforts to “shut PMH down” in support of doctors if needs were not met.

“We will take a stand, if the nurses have to come off the job, we will do that to take a stand with our congress. We are not playing no jokes.

“So those that are in power, please - we don’t want you just to acknowledge, we don’t want you just to call, we want you to make the change today and we will wait patiently and we will stick together like sardines in a can. That’s how we moving,” she said last week.