How militant chat group stoked nurse sickout, crippling hospitals
Published:Wednesday | August 25, 2021 | 12:37 PM
David Salmon/Gleaner Writer
Today's islandwide sickout by scores of public-sector nurses was hatched over the last 48 hours by a militant online group protesting overwork and perceived disrespect from state officials, including the prime minister.
The sickout has had a crippling blow to operations at some hospitals.
Sickout breakdown
At the University Hospital of the West Indies, 55 nurses did not report for duty out of 172, while 38 turned out at Mandeville Regional Hospital from a complement of 172.
There were 35 absences from a shift duty of 59 at the St Ann's Bay Hospital and seven called in sick out of 29 at Bellevue.
Thirteen nurses did not show up at Spanish Town Hospital Tuesday night.
Angered by record rates of COVID-19 hospitalisations and deaths and increased risk of infection, the nurses charged that they would stay away until their concerns were adequately addressed, including the guarantee of preferential treatment for healthcare professionals who contract the disease.
"Jamaican nurses sickout is Wednesday and if nothing, we continue to Thursday…pass it on to secretive supportive nurses, we MOVING in silence,” one member of the Telegram group said as support grew on Monday.
Telegram is an encrypted messaging app similar to WhatsApp.
Up to 6 p.m. on Monday, the Telegram group contained approximately 900 members but has since soared to more than 1,000.
Another message read: “You will know on the day if you are to be retested. 'Testing' is the code for the protest action. 'Retesting' is the code word indicating that protest action should continue to the next day."
But there appears to be a schism between junior nurses and their seniors about how to aggressively lobby for a policy shift from the Holness administration.
NAJ
Nurses Association of Jamaica (NAJ) President Patsy Edwards-Henry told The Gleaner earlier this morning that she was unaware of the sickout.
On Monday, she had denied knowledge of the looming protest and insisted that the NAJ had no part in such a plan.
“I don't have any information on that,” Edwards-Henry told this newspaper two days ago.
However, correspondence seen by The Gleaner indicates that the NAJ president was aware of the disquiet and protest plan.
But she pushed back at the lobby by purported anonymous personnel, saying she was "old school" and "not petty".
She urged aggrieved parties to make contact with her through the NAJ offices.
"What I will not do is be drawn into a fight with nurses on social media. If we treat each other with toxicity, it will be difficult for others to treat us with respect," Edwards-Henry said.
"Whatever the issues are, you have to start with dialogue. We cannot all be shouting without a clear plan."
While the nurses may have been rankled by Prime Minister Andrew Holness' insistence that no group would be predetermined to receive priority COVID-19 hospital care, there are broader concerns about remuneration and increased stress.
Holness had made the comment at a Jamaica House press conference last Thursday.
READ: Gov't insists hospital staff exposed to virus must wait in line for treatment
"We are not only disgruntled about what the PM said. We are disgruntled on how we are treated," a nurse who withheld her identity told The Gleaner this morning.
"We work in deplorable conditions under stress, and at the end of the month, we can't buy food."
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