Some experience longer wait at Cornwall Regional due to sickout

Some persons seeking treatment at the Cornwall Regional Hospital in St James today had longer wait times as nurses there joined their colleagues at other institutions in a sickout.

Upset visitors also complained about a lack of information from hospital officials.

“My mother is here from yesterday, and she is still where we left her, and it is frustrating because we have been waiting and cannot get any answers. I did not get to go inside the ward so I cannot say if nurses are there now, but when I came here yesterday there were nurses there,” a woman told The Gleaner.

About 50 of the 97 nurses scheduled for duties turned up for work this morning.

They are among scores of public health nurses across Jamaica who stayed off the job today to protest working conditions.

The nurses are also upset over remarks made by Prime Minister Andrew Holness that no group, including health workers, would receive priority at hospitals if they were to contract COVID-19.

The comment, which was made by Holness last Thursday at a Jamaica House press conference, has angered nurses.

When The Gleaner visited Cornwall Regional today, only a few senior doctors, junior doctors and patient care assistants were seen carrying out duties.

They shied away from speaking about the absenteeism by nurses.

Attempts to get a comment from the hospital's chief executive officer Charmaine Beckford-Williams were unsuccessful as she was said to be in a meeting.

- Christopher Thomas

Follow The Gleaner on Twitter and Instagram @JamaicaGleaner and on Facebook @GleanerJamaica. Send us a message on WhatsApp at 1-876-499-0169 or email us at onlinefeedback@gleanerjm.com or editors@gleanerjm.com.