And while top end specialists are leaving, it's getting crowded at the lower ranks!!
During the Budget Debate, Albert Division's area rep, Tracy Panton, lamented that the already high wage bill increased by over twenty three million dollars due to a proliferation of non-established workers.
In the Ministry of Health specifically, the amount paid out to non-established workers jumped from $34,000 from fiscal year 2020/2021 to over $82,000 in the last fiscal year.
The Minister explained that the increase is a combination of the minimum wage increase and the increase of healthcare staff.
Kevin Bernard, Minister of Health
"Staffing, and I think you're trying to get to the point where they were harping on the wages for non-established. Let me point out the clarification, and I had said it in my response to her, the $5 wage has an increase, has an impact on that. We increased for April 1 the community stipends of community health care workers and we are increasing the amount of community health care workers across the country. So we have in the budget put also where we are going to be hiring new health care, community health care workers and that stipend will be going from one hundred dollars to five hundred dollars. So there's a significant jump in terms of that. At the same time, when you look at the number of staffing that we have, I think erroneously what the area representative member for Albert did not point out and she tried to say we have the same, but that's not the case, when you look at the actual figures of staffing between what was 785, I believe, and then now 951, that is where the difference is. We have been putting in people, we have been trying to fill the gaps within the areas, in CMS, at the regions and yes, we may be losing nurses, but as we are losing, then we are putting out and trying to get in nurses. In fact, every single day we have applications coming in for persons who are graduating, going through the nursing council, making sure that the process, it goes through the necessary process of force. But we are trying to make sure that we fill the human resource gaps. Will we be able to do so in three months, six months, one year? We may never be able to fill entire gaps, but we are working on making sure that we are able to provide the quality and efficient service to the Belizean people. That is what is most important. So to take the budget and look at the wages on a blanket form, I think it was not really the right approach, but to really get the answer, all of these things has a factor in terms of why the wages may reflect that difference."
