The original article can be found in: Trinidad Newsday By LARA PICKFORD-GORDON
THE Public Services Association (PSA) intends to sue the North Central Regional Health Authority (NCRHA) for failing to remit workers’ national insurance payments to the National Insurance Board (NIB), association president Watson Duke announced yesterday during a meeting with workers at the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex in Mt Hope.
In the presence of workers, Duke telephoned an attorney and asked for advice. He then told the workers to have their documents ready to present to the lawyer at a meeting set for this morning at 7.30.
“Before the week is finished we should have something in court,” Duke told workers who gathered at Building 39. A nurse told Newsday only after a personal probe did she realise NIS was not paid for this year and part of last year.The NCRHA, via a release and advertisement over a week ago, said all remittances of NIS and Health Surcharge were current with September 2012, due on October 15. On the matter of the Public Private Partnership arrangement (PPP), Duke said workers might think it a bad thing because “partnership is like a cuss word now”, but there was nothing wrong with partnering with the NCRHA.
“You are the NCRHA. We can do nothing without your permission and knowledge. The plan of Government is not a new one. It is a policy of Government to create a stimulus for the economy,” Duke said adding that the PPP is an interesting idea but the union would resist moves to give departments to “friends” to be managed like “a parlour.”
In a release, the NCRHA sought to “set the record straight” regarding advertisements for Expressions of Interest for PPP, in 24 departments at the EWMSC.
It said the PPP is to be undertaken as a pilot project, “to improve quality, efficiency and timeliness of delivery of services to the public, thereby significantly reducing waiting times for appointments.”It was also intended to provide opportunities for training and improving skills and proficiency of staff.
The NCRHA said there was to be no loss of jobs from the PPP since employees would have an opportunity to form themselves into cooperatives and/or companies to provide services at agreed rates with strict protocols, monitoring and evaluation systems. The NCRHA has suspended the advertisement and invited the PSA to submit a proposal for PPP particularly, but not exclusive, to areas heavily staffed by its members. Patients were again feeling the effect of workers’ absenteeism yesterday.
A patient from Valencia, seeking treatment at the Haematology Clinic said he waited six months for an appointment and when he arrived yesterday, was told the doctor he was scheduled to see at 8 am, was no longer at the EWMSC. There were no customer service representatives to deal with persons present or give out new appointment dates.
“People sat down shoo-shooing and complaining among themselves. Many left without appointments,” the patient said. A security guard was advising people to telephone between the hours of 2.30 pm and 3 pm, to try and get new appointments.
A 75-year-old Curepe resident attending the Cardiology Clinic said: “A nurse told me I have to call to get an appointment.
I am a pensioner and I have to pay a taxi to come here and return home. The system is bad. The doctors and nurses are good.”
