BVI pulling health professionals from Cuba, Philippines and Ghana
As the BVI continues to struggle with a shortage of healthcare professionals to deliver vital services locally, Health Minister Marlon Penn has announced that steps are being taken to hire and retain personnel to serve the community.
Minister Penn said the BVI Health Services Authority (BVIHSA) has entered into an agreement with Cuba, which will result in a limited number of health professionals being deployed to the BVI over the next year.
Minister Penn did not state the number of Cuban healthcare providers that will be deployed.
He added that nurses are among the healthcare professionals most needed in the BVI so the territory is looking to Asia and Africa to help fill the void.
“New markets for nurse recruitment are actively being explored including Ghana and the Philippines as nursing shortages are the most pressing concern at this time. Retention initiatives are being reviewed by the BVIHSA’s board for all clinical and allied health staff to ensure that trained staff can be retained while operating within the budget limits,” Penn said in the House of Assembly on November 15.
In a bid to get more healthcare professionals, the government has also partnered with the H Lavity Stoutt Community College which will provide ongoing professional development opportunities to improve the skills of allied health professionals and other technical staff that are already working in the healthcare sector.
Minister Penn said the shortage of healthcare professionals is not unique to the BVI and is being faced by many countries around the world.
He also said the issue was worsened by the global COVID-19 pandemic and has resulted in some countries offering more attractive packages including increased compensation packages and immigration incentives to pull healthcare professionals to their jurisdictions.
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we should of done that a long time ago / these predators need have here think that greater than God , they are smart on computers only and their is at their mercy of being misdiagnosed which can jepodize a human beings life , and they bwill smile and give you something else and the beat goes on / I hope they check out their QUALIFICATIONS THOROUGHLY FIRST )
Just ensure that they are thoroughly vetted and qualification along with credentials are legit.
Hardly any BvI young people get in the nursing profession and the few who do, leave because they are frustrated with a old time system … Hospital patients and families are rude and disrespectful to foreign staff and oft times threaten their jobs.
Rude questions like “ah way you from / “ oh you are a bVIslander but your name sounds like an island name , you not from here … so those are tge yard stick for measuring or showing respect .
If people do not change their mind set soon there would Be
No staff working at the hospital … Nurses work for donkey years and there is nothing for dem except Social Security … Why not go where there is a better deal and you are respected and your contribution valued ? BVI is in trouble with a shortage of skills and the public not seeing why ?
The fact that we do not have the necessary skill set here to fill all our professional and technical requirements should cause us to have humility and respect those who offer themselves to care for us. It should be a good reminder that the old cliche born hay and the stupidity of three generations is not serving our social needs. We should also be mindful that these persons coming here are not objects of BVI inculturation. They have and are entitled to their cultural norms as long as they are legal, non-offensive, and wholesome.
Why are we refusing to educate our own?
He sound so stupid
Stage lady from Jamon is having medical issues after having a procedure done in a foreign country by a inexperienced physician. How do we prove their legitimacy? Oh, by another one already here recommendation for his friend or fam! Bam hired by the ambulance moving organization!
There were many good expat(caribbean) nurses that treated our people and delivered many of our babies. But,some of these nurses were treated badly and let’s not get into the abuse they suffered when trying to enforce visiting hours. Respect and appreciation are hard to find in the BVI.
A big part of the problem is the BVI medical cabal keeps salaries low for outsiders in health care services. Few BVIslanders would be willing to return from obtaining their qualifications (medical, nursing, etc.) when the salaries on offer are at least 50% of what they could get elsewhere. So, instead we recruit from overseas, pay low salaries. So instead of staying, many overseas recruits stay long enough to have sufficient experience to qualify for taking board exans somewhere else where the pay is better, and then they leave.
Cheap labor
Once again the BVI at its best. Bring so called health professionals from third world toilet bowls. Any thought given to bring any from the US or the UK. Bringing Cubans that can’t speak English. Just unreal. UK please take over and stop the madness.
The service at BVIHSA has dramatically improved since the introduction of practitioners from Cuba. Not only are they thorough in their service, but they also take time to call and follow up to see how are processing when at home. What a difference!! I see them showing the local staff how to treat people and it’s rubbing off because, simply put, we don’t know how to serve people and don’t care. It is the care you deserve when you are at your worse. Thank you, Dr. Rodriquez!! Please, let them come!!
Why all the negative comments our young local men and women don’t want to do any thing good and positive with their lives just sit down on the block and smoke weed all day and we want to blame others for their lazyness.
Did you not know that Tortola is a Third Eorld country? Just because you have a high sverige income does not mean it redounds to locals. Take a look at your infrastructure. Five years after a hurricane you cannot get your admin building up and running. Look at your education system. How does it rank? And what about your military? How self sufficient is your health system? We are a Third World country.
Don’t you realize that many places in the world are also having problems staffing medical professionals. All you have to do is watch or read BBC and you will be educated on this fact!
It’s not just the BVI with this problem…..
Get people that want to work. Pay them less treat them good and get more.
ah where you from??? BVIsanders don’t speak like that. At least get the dialect right Says volumes about you.
@Respecto. Speak for only the young people that you know cause I don’t know any lazy young people around me. Stereotyping unnecessarily. Happy to call them down but you live and make money here.
Those Cuban health care professionals really are a breath of fresh air. Not that the medical professionals from elsewhere are not also good, but there has definitely been a big improvement in the professionalism at BVIHSA. I have had more opportunities than I would like (unfortunately) to observe them and first hand I give them A++. I have also travelled to PR and the USA for medical care and put their level of expertise parallel if not above the care I received elsewhere. If that is what we have to do Mr. Minister, do it!
This is first rate plate and cannot find a Fisherman to clean and feed the fish when they get weary and tired from the battering waves ? It’s the third world country nurses and doctors that saving alyo prejudice ar…s . Why don’t you send you first rate generation to come back and serve your country .. sick thinking
We are criticizing and do not do anything to help. Raise the bar of Education , counseling … encourage our students to get in other fields … Business Administion is the easiest area our students clamor for . Our Science students are getting fewer and fewer . That is what you should do and stop puking down the doctors and nurses . You expect professional to come her for free when Uk, USA Australia and Canada are offering huge incentives… it is ayo badmindness that have the country in the state.
The dog guarding the hay which it cannot even relish . This country will be its own ruin is something does not change
Where do you think the UK gets nurses from & the US?
Bull crap! Wait a bit too dam late
That cry was out there ever since , no one listened.
Or it could be that the persons asking the questions were not originally from the BVI. Some still do mot know the difference.
Mr Marlon, ours overseas but you cant bring them and pay them?
They have no idea what they are in store for with these ‘barrn here’ nonsense! Sad reality!
This is a multifaceted problem, and I am speaking directly to the minister.
Firstly, you need capable management of the healthcare system. this is a major part of the problems. This recycled lot is only going to push it further into the doldrums.
Secondly the Human resources needs a complete overhaul, you need trained capable human resources to lead, develops programs and interact with staff. This is the one of the biggest problems.
Thirdly you need to incentivize the process with meaningful performance driven rewards. You cannot have a healthcare professional and expects to pay them the same salary for ten years not even the proverbial yearly increment. The retirement benefit is half of the government package with no monthly benefits. No Belonger is going to work for thirty years and you give them a onetime payment of $30-40 thousand for retirement. That is inhumane. Remember the worker contributed a half of the retirement payment. Healthcare workers have laughed at the meager salaries presently being paid. That is why the USA and Britain can come to the Caribbean and recruit our professionals in a jiffy. On the social sphere we have a reputation across the Caribbean for treating healthcare professionals poorly so any advertisement across the Caribbean gets a very poor response and the few that responds get no offer that will attract their interests. Mr. Minister, you have a lot to do but you have to start somewhere to attract and retain capable medical professionals. Please start by trying to keep those you presently have. Go visit the staff and hear their concerns and aspirations and bring them solutions. Meet with the staff please. Don’t just listen to the top managers they have their own fish frying.
@yup, no one from the US or UK wants to come here for the Pennies on the dollar paid to health care professionals. That is why so many are leaving, to make a real decent living wage somewhere el
You are not from the BVI! Stop it! Your hateful comment meant to create divisiveness is wrong, so just stop it.
They gonna get contracts out for all these people set up in a way to make a profit off of it. this is stupid because many who have applied are told that there are no vacancies. Bunch of liars. they pick and choose.
I said that many years ago that this is where u all would end up going that far to hire is and not the issue .the issue is the liars u got in HR who don’t no anything and gives a good package but when u get there it’s never that.HR is the liar.secondly management is very poor .they treat Healthcare providers like dogs. If your are treating your staff so terrible how is management going to treat those you talking about .you all had some of the best doctors and nurses and retain none not one u retain now u asking for staff .MY ADVICE IS TO CLEAN UP MANAGEMENT FIRST BEFORE U RECRUIT THESE PEOPLE ITS ASHAME THAT U GOT TO THIS STAGE .DOWN THERE salary never seems correct on payday and benefits always missing .correct the pension scheme it got some huge rats in there .
My advice to the foreign Healthcare providers .take it or leave it .Don’t make that mistake to come .u will regret them days .go where u will be appreciated and get paid properly
All the best of Philippines are being hired by UK and USA
India have some good ones check eureka etc