Budgeting for Nurses’ Allowance; Adjustments Coming

Kevin Bernard

Speaking about the increase in allowance for community healthcare workers, nurses have been migrating for better wages. It is among the many issues that have been brought to the Ministry of Health and Wellness over the past months. Minister Bernard says that the ministry is looking at adjustment of salaries for nurses, pharmacists and those in the health sector.  

Kevin Bernard, Minister of Health & Wellness

“What we also did and what we’re budgeting for is that we have also said to the nurses, we are looking at the compendium of allowances that we need to look at. We have to make those adjustments. We will go back pretty soon to cabinet and to the government and say we are looking at the pharmacists, we are looking at the med techs, we are looking at all of these persons to see where their salary scales have been at the very lowest point for too long. If we are to attract these people to stay, just as the nurses, then we need to make the necessary adjustment. So part of the allowance as well that we have budgeted for is to ensure that we could reach those targets. And like I said, a budget is a budget; it is a wish list. We want to make sure that we have the funding available to be able to provide these things. And of course, it goes through the necessary processes and cabinet and so forth. But when you look at the budget, and we can share the full details to you all through the F.O.s, but it is all in the hope that we are able to keep our staff.  We are making sure that our target is to get in more nurses, we need to bring in more nurses into the system, but at the same time we need to fill all the other gaps that we have. We need more radiologists, we need more lab technicians, we are looking for pharmacists – it has been difficult – but we are doing what we need to do to ensure that we are filling those human resources gap so that we can better offer quality services to the Belizean people.”