Staffers at the Palms Geriatric Home on Brickdam are accusing administrators of the home of neglect, which has forced both them and inmates to endure deplorable conditions at the facility.
Last Thursday, several nurses, maids and porters staged a protest on the lawns of the geriatric home, calling for better working conditions and a raise in pay. They told Stabroek News on Monday that they were planning another protest because they had had enough of the “verbal abuse” and “victimisation” from the administrators of the home.
When Stabroek News went to the administrator’s office in the compound, the reporter was told that both the Administrator Samantha Douglas and her Deputy Shirley Crossman were unavailable.
The workers stated that since the protest on Thursday, two porters have been dismissed without reason, which has made some of the nurses afraid of speaking out.
A nurse said one of the persons who was fired was Delon King, the porter who had scaled the roof of the home to protest about pay raises for staffers in 2013.
King told Stabroek News on Monday that he was dismissed after his contract was not renewed by the administration. He said he believed the reason for his dismissal was because he had protested for a hike in pay, while other staffers were afraid to come out openly and ask for the increase.
A nurse, who asked not to be named, said some of her colleagues are afraid of victimisation. She said one of the administrators told her that she would be sent a dismissal letter if she speaks out and starts any trouble. However, the nurse said she was waiting on the woman to do so. “I know we have a right to speak, so I’m waiting on the letter,” she said, while noting that she was denied her gratuity last year and she has been working four months now without pay.
The nurse, who is on contract with the home, said when she was pregnant she had to work on a male ward by herself because the home is short of staff. She said she does not think it right for female nurses to work on a male ward without a male worker. She pointed out that some of the residents were too heavy for her to fetch to bathe and clean while some can get abusive. “I was working on that male ward when I was nine months pregnant and one time I had to lift one of the residents and I felt like my water burst and my belly started to pain,” she recounted. She added that when she complained to one of the administrators, she was told that “pregnancy is not a sickness” and so she should not complain.
“It was just me and my belly and the ward. It’s terrible. I’m a single parent and I’m living till on the east coast and they are not paying me. I haven’t gotten paid in four months. I haven’t gotten my gratuity because they say my performance was not up to standard. How can my performance not be up to standard when I was working an entire ward with over 25 residents on my own?” she complained.
Another nurse, Stacy Johnson, spoke about the deplorable conditions in the home, while stating that the administration only fixes things when something “bad happens” at the home. She said recently a maid almost fell through the flooring of one ward and into another. She said the woman injured her hips and her legs and has not been compensated as yet. “We don’t have any proper risk allowance. Some of these residents can get abusive. The flooring rotting and what if another one of us falls through? We don’t have any proper place to change our clothes, the toilets need fixing, the cupboards falling apart,” she griped.
“Now, when we trying to speak, they want to fire us. This is the time though, we can’t continue living in this condition,” Johnson said.
Johnson also said residents are being ill-treated and they are not being given a balanced diet. “The food they eat is poor and these are the people who need the right diet,” she complained.
Another worker said even though they have complained to the administrators countless times about rotten chairs, tables, cupboards and floors, nothing has been done to better the situation. “Even the residents’ plates and teacups are flaky with holes,” she noted.
