NASSAU, Bahamas, January 15, 2022 – Dr. Michael Darville, Minister of Health and Wellness and other officials of the ministry welcomed a group of Cuban Nurses to The Bahamas on Friday, January 14, as more than 116 nurses remain out of the system due to exposure to COVID-19.
Cuba’s PRESNA LATINA reported on Friday that Deputy Minister of Public Health Regla Angulo said that the group of professionals specialize in disaster operations and severe epidemics and “is made up of 50 nurses who will join the medical brigade” in The Bahamas.
“On January 8, Minister of Public Health Jose Angel Portal signed a cooperation agreement with the Minister of Health and Wellness of the Commonwealth of the Bahamas, Dr. Michael Darville, to provide an emergency response to the current pandemic,” PRESNA LATINA said.
PRESNA LATINA added: “The willingness of keeping and increasing the existing collaboration between the parties was ratified during the talks, according to a statement by the Cuban Ministry of Public Health.
“Figures published by this ministry indicate that 57 Henry Reeve brigades had rendered their services to fight the Covid-19 pandemic in 40 countries until March, 2021.
“Cuban doctors have worked in the Principality of Andorra, Azerbaijan, Italy, South Africa, Mexico, Panama, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Belize, among other countries.”
Meanwhile, Bahamas EYEWITNSS NEWS online reported on Saturday that Bahamas Nurses Union (BUT) President Amancha Williams said BUT welomes the assistance of theCuban nurses.
Speaking to EYEWITNESS NEWS, Williams said the nurses will provide much-needed help during the surge, which has compounded the nursing shortage seen throughout and before the pandemic.
“We don’t have any issues of them coming in to assist us. We need all that help we can get,” Williams said. “We have 116 nurses exposed to COVID at various institutions.”
Williams was further quoted as saying: “We need all the assistance because most nurses are burnt out working overtime to compensate for the shortage. Many wards you just have only a staff nurse and a PCA and TCN working to 18 patients, which is overwhelming. Persons are also on vacation and have emergencies. This poses a problem to us because we have a shortage.”
According to EYEWITNEESS NEWS, “Health officials confirmed 346 new cases of COVID-19 in the country on Thursday, taking the number of cases in the country to 30,254 with 6,414 still active.
“Of the new cases, 291 were on New Providence, 26 on Grand Bahama, eight on Abaco, six on Eleuthera, eight on the Berry Island, four on Exuma, and three on Long Island.
“There are currently 123 positive cases in the hospital, of which 116 are moderately ill and seven are in the intensive care unit (ICU).”
Willians noted that her team looks forward to working with the 50 Cuban ealthcare professionals “but expressed a slight concern for any possible language dialect barrier or training disparity.’
“We are grateful for the persons coming to assist but then we as RNs here still have to manage these persons,” Williams said.
She added that more must be done in order to appreciate and respect Bahamian nurses who are being heavily scouted by foreign countries.
“We’re losing nurses every day. That’s a global situation but we are losing our Bahamian nurses every day,” Wiliams said.
