When Jamaica launched free healthcare for all adults at most state-run hospitals last week, the move immediately reignited a long-standing debate about the shortage of nurses in that Caribbean nation.
The problem is being felt throughout the Caribbean as specialized and trained nurses emigrate to the United States, Europe, the Middle East and Canada for better compensation and opportunities.
In fact at a conference focusing on the nursing shortage, it was estimated ''that each year the Caribbean loses approximately 400 nurses through migration to developed countries and the cost of training these nurses is estimated at $15-$20 million,'' annually, according to the Commonwealth Secretariat's website.
''This is a big strain on countries like ours,'' Guyana President Bharrat Jagdeo said in a Miami Herald interview, sharing the concerns shared by most leader in the region.
Like Jamaica and oil-rich Trinidad, Guyana regularly loses its English-speaking nurses to U.S. hospitals, some of which are going as far as advertising in Caribbean newspapers to fill their nursing needs.
As a result of the shortage, island nations have employed a hodgepodge of solutions to try to address the problem as their citizens increasingly demand quality healthcare. In Dominica, for instance, the government a few years ago asked retired nurses to come back and asked Cuba to help with the training.
In oil-rich Trinidad, the government turned to hiring nurses from the Philippines. Meanwhile, Guyana is training ''ahead of our needs,'' Jagdeo said.
''We're training about 2,000 nurses [over five years], and we probably need 400 to 500,'' Jagdeo said.
Over the years, Guyana as well as other nations that are part of the 15-member Caribbean Community bloc known as CARICOM have attempted to address the problem by suggesting to the United States, for instance, that it help nations with the training, allowing countries to fill their needs and the growing demand.
The requests have fallen on deaf ears, Jagdeo and others say.
''There hasn't been much of a positive response to our proposals,'' he said. ``We continue to use our budgetary resources to train beyond our needs. We can build a competent core of professionals, which is so badly needed in the Caribbean to move our societies forward and to deliver the kind of quality care that our people are increasingly demanding.''
