by Linda Straker
- State hospitals will operate as statutory or body by 1 January 2025
- 1998 Grenada Hospitals Authority Act is legal framework for removing current public hospital services from direct management under Ministry of Health
- Government intends to import nurses to fill existing shortage
Health Minister Phillip Telesford has disclosed that state hospitals in Grenada will operate as a statutory or body corporate of Government by 1 January 2025. The 1998 Grenada Hospitals Authority Act will be the legal framework for removing the current public hospital services from direct management under the Ministry of Health.
“The hospital, operating under the current construct has failed and will continue to fail,” said Telesford who described the state of public health services as one that is in an emergency which Government needs to take urgent action to remedy. “The current construct has failed and we need a government with courage, a government with knowledge, a government with a vision to make this thing happen. We are not going to sit back and because of political expediency refuse to statutorise the hospital,” Telesford said.
Speaking as a guest on The Bubb Report, a Sunday talk show where issues of national importance are the subjects of discussion, Telesford, who became health minister following the January reshuffling of cabinet ministers said Government will enforce the 1998 legislation in January 2025.
“After 50 years of a bureaucratic system that failed us at The General Hospital, it is time to make the bold decision. We cannot just be practicing politics and forget about the people; this is about saving lives and the time has come for us to statutorise our hospital,” he said. “Our aim and intention is to get a competent board of directors by 1 January 2025 and to get a competent set of managers who will work alongside the board and with the existing Chief Medical Officer, Directors of Hospital Services, and other competent staff to transform healthcare in Grenada.”
The 1998 legislation provides the legislative basis for the establishment powers and duties of the Grenada Hospitals Authority. The authority, according to the 26-year-old law shall, in accordance with the policy, as determined by the board, after consultation with the minister, manage the hospital facilities in Grenada and establish new hospital facilities from time to time.
The powers and duties of the authority include managing hospital facilities; providing efficient systems for the delivery of health care; providing the use of hospitals for service, teaching and research; collaborating with recognised training institutions, in the education and training of persons and in research, medicine, nursing, dentistry, pharmacy, bio-medical and health science fields and negotiating with trade unions with respect to terms and conditions of its employees.
In his interview, Minister Telesford also disclosed that Government will import nurses to fill the shortage as exists in the current system, to ensure that the system does not continue to worsen, especially when those in the system retire or move away from the system.
“We will have to find a way to import in the short term, nurses into Grenada because the rate at which we have seen the exodus of nurses over the years has created a direct problem for those who are in the system,” he said, without identifying the nationalities under consideration to be offered these jobs. “There is an acute shortage of medical professionals in the system and so we have to find a way to attract resources to work in the system.”
