– health care limitations can keep investors away

Economic and social development in the vast majority of Caribbean Community (Caricom) may be under threat as a result the chronic shortage of nurses in the region according to a recent World Bank Report.

The bank is linking the chronic shortage of nurses in several Caricom member states including Guyana to reduced access by the people of the region to quality health care and the region’s social and economic development asserting that nursing shortages across the Caribbean place limits on the quality of health care and impairs development in the region. Officials of the bank also believe that an acute scarcity of highly trained health care providers is likely to hinder economic growth.

An estimated 7,800 nurses are employed in the various Caricom countries, about one tenth of the concentration of nurses in some developed countries, according to the report. An estimated 1,800 nurses left the Caribbean, principally for North America and Europe between 2002 and 2006.

While nurses are among the lowest paid public servants in the Caribbean and while most of those who leave the region do so for higher salaries, financial remuneration is not the only push factor. Working conditions are also believed to be high on the list of reasons for nurses’ migration. In Guyana, nurses at various state-run hospitals and health clinics frequently complain about the absence of facilities and the challenging conditions under which they must work.

The World Bank report titled ‘The Nurse Labour and Education Markets in the English-speaking Caricom – Issues and Options for Reform’ said that the region is confronted with a mounting shortage of nurses even as the demand for high quality health care increases due to an ageing population.  These shortages, the World Bank report observes have tangible impacts that could compromise the ability of Caricom to meet its key health care service needs, especially in the areas of disease prevention and care. The report also notes that the shortage of highly trained nurses is occurring at a time when the region is seeking to woo overseas investors. The bank estimates that the unmet demand for nurses in the region will more than triple over the next 15 years, from 3,300 in 2006 to 10,700 by 2025. World Bank figures also indicate that the number of trained Caribbean nurses working in North America and the United Kingdom is thrice as many as the number working in the Caribbean.