And we also asked the minister about the nursing situation which is a bit of a mess. Apart from the severe nurse shortage, the president of the Nurses Association has said repeatedly the nurses are being overworked and underpaid which is not an incentive to remain in Belize's health sector when there are lucrative opportunities in other countries.
But the waiver of the employment permit fee for Filipinos and the issuing of 50 scholarships for the nursing program was supposed to work as an incentive. So, we asked the minister how that's going:
Hon. Michel Chebat- Minister of Health and Wellness
"The nursing situation, as I have said before, is not new to Belize. This happens to us every year. And as I have said before, the situation with the Philipine nurses is not quite what it was painted to be because as a matter of fact the government had waived their fees from last year and they all have existing either temporary or full licenses to 2022. So they are leaving for other reasons apart from those stated in the media. What we are doing is, we know that it is important to continue training Belizeans and so we have offered for the first time 50 nursing scholarships and we expect that all of those positions will be taken up. We have 42 nurses qualifying either at the end of June or the middle of July, I'm not sure of the date but they will all be taken up the system. So, we will be covering that gap. When you come into the public service you are never established immediately. At every range, at every entry level you enter into a contract based on your performance and over time then you are permanently established. But yes it is an issue and I think it is something we have to look at at the entire package for nurses."
