Residents of Linden are feeling the consequences of a sit-in by staff of the Linden Hospital Complex and the action which is in its third day has closed operations in the dispensary, laboratory, X-ray and other departments.
According to local union representative Maurice Butters, the workers and the administration of the Linden Hospital have failed to resolve issues regarding on-call and overtime pay for every category of worker.
He said that an agreement had been reached at a meeting held between the Linden Hospital Complex administration and the Regional Demo-cratic Council in February this year but subsequently late entry of claims and scrutiny by an accountant of the Ministry of Health resulted in monies being held back for the months of December 2008 – April 2009.
Subsequently a meeting was called on April 8 with all medical department staff who were affected. At this meeting the officers were told that they must rewrite their claims and separate on-call overtime hours. It was decided that auxiliary staff will be paid $450 per night and queries for on-call/overtime payments must be forwarded to the permanent secretary of the Ministry of Health who was expected to discuss the matter with the Public Service Ministry and the Ministry of Health. It was these issues that resulted in the industrial action over several queries that were unanswered. Staff are claiming that they are being misguided by management.
Meanwhile, up to press time the union and workers were in a meeting discussing the issues with the aim of finding an amicable resolution to the problem.
However, efforts to reach the CEO of the hospital, Gordon Gumbs for comment on the matter proved futile.
In the meantime residents are pleading with the authorities to have the problem resolved as soon as possible since they are the ones who are suffering the most. They complained that while doctors are attending to patients they cannot access the dispensary, the laboratory or X-ray departments.
“We ain’t got no money and we getting deh prescription and deh nurse telling we fuh go to a private pharmacy fuh buy we treatment.”
Some persons said that in serious cases they were forced to take their sick relatives to Georgetown which is putting an undue strain on them.
