MINISTER of Health Dr Christopher Tufton says the time has now come for the Government to hold discussions with overseas employment agencies that continue to recruit local nurses to work out an arrangement that would benefit both Jamaica and the recruiting countries.

He said the long-term vision is for this type of deal to dovetail into a nurses-training-for-export programme.

“Many of them (recruitment agencies) come to Jamaica, as they are entitled so to do, and offer these packages on behalf of state-run entities in the respective countries — certainly in the case of the UK, where most hospitals are run by the state, [but] not necessarily the US,” he said at this week’s Jamaica Observer Monday Exchange.

The health minister noted that the Government simply cannot compete with the offers that are made by other countries each year.

“Foreign recruitment agencies pay premium dollars. So we have to revisit and relook at the whole process. Recently we had recruitment agencies coming here offering, in some instances, £40,000- £45,000 per year for a critical nurse,” he said.

“A discussion needs to take place,” Dr Tufton emphasised, noting that the Government fully respects the rights of the nurses to work in other countries, but had to be congnisant of the challenges in the local health sector. He said the arrangement which he wants to negotiate would see nurses who decide to go overseas being allowed to return to Jamaica to work for a number of months each year.

Dr Tufton said many nurses leave for economic reasons and that a number of them would, in fact, prefer the opportunity to be able to return home occasionally. “I get the impression, anecdotally, that some nurses wouldn’t be averse to that because it would allow them a chance to come back and to be here in Jamaica where they are comfortable (but) also give them the opportunity to work overseas. I think that kind of partnership could possibly alleviate some of the challenges that we face. It’s a discussion that I would like to pursue over time,” he stated.

Permanent secretary in the ministry, Dr Kevin Harvey, pointed out that there are 3,000 regular nurses working in the public health system across the island, but that there is need for at least 2,000 more.

Dr Tufton, meanwhile, lamented the shortage of critical care nurses, in particular, who are integral to post-surgery treatment. He said that although there are plans to increase the number of critical care nurses in the system by 50 per cent, there will still be a shortfall. There are now 240 critical care nurses in public health, 100 less than the compliment needed.

“It places a great strain on the capacity of the health system to respond in after-care treatment of a patient at the highest possible levels… luckily for us, not all nurses are attracted solely by money. There are other issues — working conditions, security of tenure, appointments, etc — we have to look at the entire system,” he said.

At the same time, the health minister suggested that the training and export of nurses could become a viable industry, similar to the recruitment programmes established in countries such as India. “Our nurses are very attractive to the international market. If we could find a way to overcome the clinical side, I could see Jamaica developing an industry (of) training for export and hopefully benefit the retention side (as well). It’s something worth exploring,” he stated.

The health minister announced, in his sectoral presentation last week, that the Government would be bringing nurses back from retirement to beef up the system.