Wednesday, August 12 2009

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Jerry Narace...

The Congress of the People (COP) is calling on Minister of Health Jerry Narace to review all hiring practices of local nurses and doctors as many have been complaining that foreign personnel are taking their jobs. The COP is questioning if an “artificial shortage” is being used to bring in Cuban medical personnel.

In a release, COP health care spokesperson, Dr Navi Muradali said, “many interns this year were not placed in medical jobs they wanted and were informed that places were being reserved for foreign workers.”

He said the COP believed there has been and continues to be an artificial shortage of nurses and doctors created in the country aimed at justifying the hiring of Cubans and other foreign health workers. “Despite many of them not speaking English and with questionable medical qualifications.”

Muradali said hundreds of doctors and nurses graduated in Trinidad annually yet the Ministry claims there are vacancies and then hires foreign workers at the expense of local health workers.

The COP plans to commission a survey of medical workers in Trinidad and Tobago aimed at determining whether or not local workers were denied jobs to foreign workers. Muradali repeated the COP’s appeal made in 2006 to ensure that English-proficiency testing of all foreign health workers is mandatory.