Workers at the Arima District Health Facility walked off the job yesterday because of unsafe working conditions but they can be posted to safer sites in Blanchisseuse and Toco if they wish, says Health Minister Dr Fuad Khan.
The workers were advised to leave the facility by Public Services Association (PSA) president, Watson Duke.
Duke said they were planning to do the same today.
“We have taken a zero tolerance approach to unsafe working conditions,” he said.
“There will no work during any hours of the day.”
Supervisors and medical personnel remained and tended to only emergency cases.
“Things are pretty okay so far,” a doctor told the Guardian around 4.30 pm.”
He declined to say more and said they should not be talking to the media.
Khan said he received no report about any crisis at the eastern health facility.
He said the workers’ walkout was just “Watson and his antics again”.
Any emergency case would be referred to the nearby new Sangre Grande Hospital, the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex or the Port-of-Spain General Hospital, he said.
“When they walk off the job, it’s the patients who suffer.”
Khan said if workers downed tools for no proper reason, it was “very illegal”.
“They are forcing me to look for workers in other countries.”
He said citing unsafe conditions was really a scapegoat.
The facility is being renovated and workers are operating out of one block, he said.
“What they are really about is salaries. There is no unsafe condition at the Arima Health Facility.”
The minister said Duke has been inciting workers at various institutions in the public health sector to protest against unsafe conditions because the PSA is not their recognised union and has no bargaining status for them.
Khan said public servants across the board are asking for a 14 per cent salary increase, plus arrears from the last three or four years.
He said it amounted to about $1 billion and the Government has been trying to find the money to pay them.
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The Arima District Health Facility is not a hospital, MP Rodger Samuel told the T&T Guardian yesterday.
Samuel said construction of a brand new, state-of-the-art hospital in Arima, close to the health facility, has begun.
“We are also doing extensive work on the redevelopment of the health facility.
“There are four blocks and to expedite the process we built a first class, modern wing for dental and medical services.
“At present, workers are operating from Block E while work is going on in Block D.”
Samuel said he took his asthmatic grandson to the facility over the weekend and saw no unsafe conditions.
“I guess the workers might see it differently.”