Rishard Khan

rishard.khan@guardian.co.tt

The pres­i­dent of the Reg­is­tered Nurs­es As­so­ci­a­tion Idi Stu­art is call­ing for the as­so­ci­a­tion to be in­clud­ed in the de­ci­sion-mak­ing process with­in the pub­lic health­care sys­tem. 

Speak­ing dur­ing CNC3's The Morn­ing Brew, Stu­art com­mend­ed the Min­istry of Health's han­dling of the COVID-19 out­break but not­ed the as­so­ci­a­tion want­ed a seat at the ta­ble. 

"The re­la­tion­ship gen­er­al­ly be­tween the Min­istry of Health - and I'm not speak­ing ex­clu­sive­ly about this Min­is­ter of Health and this ad­min­is­tra­tion - but gen­er­al­ly nurs­es have not been at the de­ci­sion-mak­ing process mak­ing ta­ble, the pol­i­cy-mak­ing ta­ble," he said.

He laid out sev­er­al in­stances where is­sues arose fol­low­ing pol­i­cy im­ple­men­ta­tion which he be­lieves could have been avoid­ed if they were ap­proached for in­put.

"It shouldn't be that type of re­ac­tive en­gage­ment with the as­so­ci­a­tion. We want to be there first and fore­most when these de­ci­sions are be­ing made," he said.

"And it would bode well for the en­tire health­care sys­tem. We want what is on­ly best not on­ly for our mem­bers for the pop­u­la­tion of Trinidad and To­ba­go. We would not want to see sit­u­a­tions arise that ought not to arise...if we were in­volved at the on­set."

In­stances where the as­so­ci­a­tion was not con­sult­ed he said in­clud­ed the staffing of the par­al­lel health­care sys­tem as well as the plans for rolling out of COVID-19 vac­cines.