Coye: Doctors in north quick to go slow
After a month of negotiations, doctors from the north have called it quits. The Northern Regional is again under a go-slow order because the doctors there allege conditions have not improved since they went to the negotiating table with the Ministry of Health. According to the medical professionals, there has been no word on their demands, including whether or not overtime will be paid or if there will be any increase to their “on call” allowance. News 5’s Ann-Marie Williams caught up with Minister of Health Jose Coye, who says the doctors are not acting in good faith.
Jose Coye, Minister of Health
“They also wanted some benefits in the area of full duty free vehicles, insurance benefits, and yes, we were prepared to sit with them and discuss with them. We have been having discussions. I met with them first on August thirty-first to hear all their concerns. We agreed then that we would have the discussions. I met with on September fifteenth. I was locked in as you know in Miami, I came back, I met with them, and we agreed then that there were some of the financial implications that I would need to take forward to the Cabinet. The administrating part, we will deal with administratively. I met on the Tuesday just after the State of the Nation Address by the Prime Minister, I met with him. He gave him commitment in principle that we should support the concerns, but that we need to take it to the Cabinet because of the financial implications.”
Ann-Marie Williams
“Some of the doctors are saying that the discussions have reached an impasse and in times like these it’s only the patients who are at the loose end. What exactly will happen?”
Jose Coye
“Well firstly, let me say again that that is totally untrue. That is very dishonest of anyone who said that, there was no such thing. The discussions have reached the point where we have to take it to the Cabinet. It has financial implications, neither the Prime Minister nor myself can make that decision. It must go to the Cabinet and from the Cabinet, where there’s a need for a supplementary, then it goes to the House. So that is no impasse. The decision to withdraw their services or to “work the rule”, which I’m not too clear what is really meant by that. I was told that “work the rule” means that they will only do the hours that they are required to do, which is their forty hours. Fine, we have no problem with that, except that if they are to be called out for any emergencies they should respond, under the terms of agreement they should respond. If they don’t respond, fine. I will then have to look at it within the context of the law.”
And while it was rumoured that the doctors at the K.H.M.H. were also a part of the go-slow, C.E.O. Alvaro Rosado says a check with his doctors and nurses this morning revealed that it was business as usual.
