By EARYEL BOWLEG

Tribune Staff Reporter

ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

SECURITY officers are being hired for Family Island clinics after an incident in May that saw a doctor and nurse held hostage following a stabbing.

Health and Wellness Minister Dr Michael Darville said Cabinet approved hiring and deploying 162 security officers to Family Island clinics after the incident in Eleuthera.

Dr Darville noted many clinics are staffed with women nurses working at night at facilities, which could be unsafe.

Bahamas Nurses Union (BNU) president Muriel Lightbourn gave further details on the two medical professionals who were held hostage on May 27.

“There was a stabbing incident,” she said last week. “The perpetrator came into the clinic as a victim, I guess, to finish what he had started. During that, the nurse and the doctor were held hostage in the clinic, now, along with one of the victims.

“Now my take is this. When it came to me, I thought we were talking about the clinic, but we’re actually talking about a house — a three-bedroom, two-bath house — that the clinic is presently utilising.”

She said the structure was initially only supposed to house nurses.

Dr Darville said when health officials learned about the incident, they investigated and found that clinics throughout Family Islands had a shortage of security officers.

“Most of our healthcare facilities in the Family Islands are under complete control of females,” he said. “I want to let the general public know that the Cabinet of The Bahamas approved to hire 162 security officers to be deployed throughout the Family Islands.

“That particular recruitment exercise is ongoing and we should have it completed in a few months. The time has come for our nurses in the Family Islands to have that security support for two reasons.

“One, sometimes they are called upon at night and sometimes they have to present themselves to the clinic and I’m concerned about it and so we want Cabinet to get the necessary funding to hire security offices, as well as maintenance facility support staff throughout the Family Islands.”