KINGSTON, Jamaica – There is a looming health crisis in Jamaica as a number of nurses across the island called in sick Wednesday morning, sending officials scrambling to assess the scale of the problem.

The Cornwall Regional, Mandeville Regional and May Pen hospitals, and University Hospital of the West Indies (UHWI) have been adversely affected by the group industrial action. 

A sickout is a period of unwarranted sick leave taken as a form of group industrial action.

The UHWI has confirmed that at least 52 nurses have called in sick. 

Nurses are advocating that structured measures should be introduced to guarantee care if healthcare workers contract the virus, but the government has not changed its stance of having a predetermined priority list. It is understood that the planned protest is aimed to force the Government to change its stance on the issue. 

When contacted by Observer Online, a person who answered the phone of Nurses Association of Jamaica (NAJ) President Patsy Edwards-Henry, said: “Mrs Henry will not be making any announcements to the media at this time until she gets more information.” 

Fatigue associated with a surge of COVID-19 cases along with record hospitalisations and deaths has caused health workers to become restive. 

Two weeks ago, Percy Junor Hospital’s Annette White-Best was confirmed as the first case of a nurse dying after contracting COVID-19 on the job. White-Best succumbed after waiting for a long period for a ventilator.

The situation was compounded when retired nurse Linnette Johnson passed away from COVID-related complications last Thursday, hours after her husband succumbed to the respiratory illness.

An online meeting that was held Tuesday between Health Minister Dr Christopher Tufton and the executive of the NAJ and about 300 nurses ended in a stalemate. 

Jamaica has recorded more than 63,000 COVID-19 cases and 1,417 deaths.

Healthcare workers are becoming increasingly frustrated as nations struggle to combat the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.

– Claude Mills