Health
Barbados Recruits Nurses from Ghana and Philippines, Faces Contract Issues
Barbados resumes recruitment of nurses from Ghana despite contract breaches, with plans to welcome a third batch from Ghana and the Philippines. Some nurses viewed Barbados as a stepping stone to the UK.
Barbados is once again recruiting nurses from Ghana, despite reports that a number of them, particularly those from the first batch entering the country, had broken their contracts to go to greener pastures in the United Kingdom.
Minister of Health The Most Honourable Senator Dr Jerome Walcott, in an interview with the Sunday Sun, disclosed that they were preparing to welcome a third batch of nurses from Ghana and also from the Philippines.
However, a source affiliated with the programme said while the Ghanaian nurses did experience some administrative problems while here, particularly with late payments, a number of them had only used Barbados as a stepping stone to get to the UK.
“Before their contracts were up they were asking for transcripts because in order to get to do nursing in the UK they had to show that they worked in an Englishspeaking country. So after Barbados spent thousands of dollars chartering a flight for them to come here and basically training them as well, many packed up and left for the UK.” (MB)
