Health Minister reveals why doctors and nurses are leaving
Healthcare professionals, especially nurses, are leaving the BVI for better opportunities abroad, leaving the territory grappling with staffing shortages.
“Recruiting doctors and nurses right now is a real challenge,” Health Minister Vincent Wheatley said in the House of Assembly this week.
He pointed out that the difficulty is not only recruiting but also retaining healthcare workers willing to serve in areas like Jost Van Dyke.
Wheatley argued that the allure of higher salaries and better working conditions in countries like the Cayman Islands, Bermuda, Canada, the UK, and the United States, are what he suggested draw BVI’s healthcare workers away.
The minister revealed a stark comparison in compensation, noting that starting salaries for nurses in the BVI are significantly lower than those offered in these competitive markets. For instance, a starting nurse in the BVI might earn between $40,000 to $50,000, whereas in other jurisdictions, the starting salary can be as high as $90,000 to $100,000.
This disparity makes it increasingly difficult for the BVI to retain its healthcare workforce. “The salary is very attractive out there. So recruitment and retention remains a challenge for us,” Wheatley stated.
The BVI Health Services Authority (BVIHSA) is particularly feeling the strain, with Minister Wheatley noting that the highest number of vacancies are for nurses who attend to urgent needs. He pointed out that there are 21 vacancies in critical areas such as the emergency room, medical and surgical unit, and obstetrics, among others. Additionally, there is a pressing need for specialist physicians in areas like internal medicine and emergency care.
According to the Health Minister, efforts are underway to address these challenges, including the negotiation of new contracts with healthcare professionals and the exploration of more attractive compensation packages.
However, the minister described the issue as being complex and pointed out that recruiting doctors and nurses is a challenge because there is a global shortage and the BVI is competing in a very competitive field.
Meanwhile, residents of Jost Van Dyke are clamouring for a permanent resident doctor and improved medical facilities, including the availability of basic emergency equipment like defibrillators.
Minister Wheatley expressed a commitment to improving healthcare across the territory but also highlighted the financial constraints that limit the government’s ability to make immediate and sweeping changes.
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Simple solution. Increase salary rates, give the workers their increments, pay workers ontime, let those in managerial positions know t hat they are task with managing the duties of personnel not ruining and stressing individual workers based on personal indifferences. Management should atleast at professional to fit these positions.
While I agree in principle to the raising of salaries to a more competitive level, its also a des-service to think that money solves all problems.
If our native Virgin Islanders working abroad can only be enticed to return to their homelands by higher salaries rather than a sense of wanting to give back to their homeland, what will prevent them from leaving when even higher wages lure them abroad again? And how long can we continue the salaries “arms race” that will inevitably develop as neighboring regions compete financially for the best and brightest?
And also, we are forgetting that people migrate to the USA not just for higher salaries but for the perceived prestige, better living standards, greater access to the educational system, more career opportunities, etc. etc. Many returning “home” from the States bring a different culture and adopted viewpoint that often clashes with those who stayed behind, and may find it harder to reacclimatize, or conversely may wish to institute reforms and changes that are not understood or welcomed by their peers.
Finally, how will those who have remained here all these years react when their salaries receive a modest “bump” but they see returning colleagues being given the welcome wagon of higher wages, perks and allowances, and supervisory roles in an effort to retain them even though in some cases the existing qualifications may be the same?
simple solutions are not always so simple, and human nature is a tricky thing.
This is not a new issue. Medical salaries have been forever well short of market salaries in the USVI and elsewhere. So, when our progeny leave to become doctors, nurses etc, the financial incentive to return is limited. Instead, many people willing to come here do so for long enough to get the necessary experience to qualify for board exams in countries that pay much better, creating a revolving door. The control in salaries has also meant that specialists from the USVI are unwilling to set up offices here because salaries for staff they bring over are required to be on a par with salaries here. At the end of the day, we get what we pay for.
Our salaries don’t even start at 40K, this is a lie and if it does I need to be adjusted now with retro pay also.
The amount of abuse a nurse takes from patients and their families is not fear and just.
A nurse is a very noble profession but we should be compensated just the same.
As a nurse its not only the salary, just think about it.
It ain some time ago yall high ranking positions down at the hospital cut the workers’ pay to give them self a pay raise?
also some story about workers not being paid overtime? it was in the news no?
Pay the people reasonably!
Stop cut them pay for greed!
and pay them the overtime!
Them working! wtf
can’t be giving bad treatment and still low pay. craziness!
LET IT REFLECT ON OUR PAY ! DO YOU WANT US TO SHOW THE PUBLIC OUR PAY STUBBS?
This article is far from accurate in the comparison of salaries in the US anyway. One search on Google and you will find nurse in the US are not making $100k a year. They are starting at $60-$70 which is better than the $40k mentioned here but don’t believe every word Wheatley says.
The health system gets micro manage by a bunch idiots. The HOA.
The BVI needs 35-40 thousand persons living here to make its commerce grow
They so foolish that all the average BVIslander could think that people come here to take away something from them , steal their bithright etc . Set good immigration laws in place to protect your people and also increase the flow of businesses and opportunities for commerce to grow
Prejudice and racism is killing the BVI because that is where most of the focus lies
Let light drive out darkness
Does this explain why so many people are dying at the hospital?
your doctors shud all be presentable wearing white coats
or anything presentable. All you wearing scrubs,
slippers I not know who janitor vs doctors.
only my baby doughter doctor there i see on presentble on white coat and in even high end cloths. Stuups
People study for years to become experts in their fields and contribute to this community. While, money is a factor, the biggest reason health professionals are leaving is the stinking thinking that pervades the BVI. The constant barrage of criticism, the ignorance and learned helplessness of people who eat themselves to death and want you to resurrect them like Jesus. Yet these same people cannot be heard when private practitioners mistreat them. Let’s close the hospital and every man fend for himself.