By LEANDRA ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

lrolle@tribunemedia.net

HEALTH Minister Renward Wells has said the government is currently not considering making COVID-19 vaccines mandatory for healthcare workers even though recommendations have been put forward as vaccine hesitancy among the group remains a challenge.

Mr Wells made the assertion after Chief Medical Officer Dr Pearl McMillan told reporters at a Ministry of Health press conference on Friday that mandatory vaccinations for healthcare workers was under consideration due to vaccine hesitancy.

She said because of the significant role medical workers play in the fight against COVID-19, officials recognise the need for more personnel to get vaccinated to help contain the pandemic.

The suggestion, however, has received much pushback in the medical community – with Bahamas Nurses Union president Amancha Williams recently telling The Tribune the decision to take the jab should be a personal choice.

Yesterday, Mr Wells sought to alleviate worker’s concerns, insisting it was just a recommendation.

He said while no final decision has been made on the matter, making vaccines mandatory for healthcare workers is not the current position of the government.

“That is not the current position of the government of the Bahamas. Let me state that emphatically – it is not the current position of the government of the Bahamas,” Mr Wells said before going to a Cabinet meeting Tuesday.

“This was a recommendation made by the health professionals in The Bahamas, in the Ministry of Health to the government as a way for us to be able to help arrest and deal with the spread of COVID.”

“But the government of the Bahamas has not made a decision as have others around the globe to move in the direction of a mandatory requirement for healthcare workers.”

Several countries have since implemented the mandatory vaccination policies for frontline workers in recent months. Among those include Italy France and Greece.

“Just yesterday (Monday), the entire state of California made it mandatory that all public workers in California be vaccinated or get tested every week to show that they do not have the virus and there’s talk about them charging their employees to do such,” Mr Wells added. “Not just California, the entire city of New York has made it mandatory that all of its public workers get vaccinated or take a test and for the first time in the United States, the entire federal department of the US of veterans affairs has now made it mandatory that all of the healthcare workers in its system be vaccinated.”

The push for vaccinations comes at a time when COVID-19 cases and virus-related hospital admissions are surging worldwide, even here in the Bahamas. More than 1,5000 new cases have already been confirmed in the country for this month alone.

The resurgence of virus infections has placed a great strain on the nation’s already burdened health care system, which is plagued by a lack of human resources among other things.

Mr Wells said officials are addressing staff shortages in public health and have already taken steps to increase worker capacity.

He said his ministry will be bringing on some 60 doctors in the days ahead – something health unions have long been calling for.

“In my public healthcare system, I have over 550 doctors – 422 at PMH alone and I’m going to be hiring another almost 60 doctors to add to the 550 I got,” Mr Wells told reporters yesterday.

When asked when the workers are expected to come on stream, the health minister continued: “As a matter of fact, that’s already happened. There is more than 24 senior house officers.

“We’re looking to hire, well not hire. We’re bringing on 30 and then we’re bringing on an additional 30 interns. As you know last year, we would’ve hired some 32 doctors.”

“If you remember back in October, (those) who were interns in the system and we hired them as senior house officers. We have 24 of the new senior house officers who are now onboard and I understand that about 30 interns took their exams last night and they’ve been working in the system trying to qualify themselves.”

“They took their exams and we’re looking to onboard as many of them that would’ve passed their exams. We’ll be bringing them into the public system. They’re already working in the system to a certain extent but we’re going to be bringing them on as senior house officers.”

As for the nursing community, Mr Wells said similar plans are also in the pipeline.

“We’re bringing on 64 nurses and as you know, the first of July is the new budget period and for that budget period, we’re bringing on who are currently working 64 registered nurses. We’re bringing on 20 trained clinical nurses,” the health minister told reporters.

“We’re bringing on 17 patient care assistants and 10 porters that are going to be deployed inside the public healthcare system. Some of them are already deployed and by the end of this week, the others will be deployed and this is not a new decision.”

“…This was a decision taken earlier in July. We had made allocations to bring on these individuals in the new budget period. I spoke to this inside the House of Assembly in June as to the additional personnel the government was going to be bringing on.“

“Certainly, we did not expect that we would’ve been here in this kind of surge, uptake of COVID taking place within the country but our preplanning to be able to address personnel shortages inside the healthcare system is going to auger well for what we intend to do going forward inside the Ministry of Health,” Mr Wells continued.