By Alicia Cruz
The Black Urban Times
Scores of Jamaican natives are facing a health crisis as medical support staff made good on their threat to "take industrial action" before talks with the island nation's senior government ministers put an end to the strike.
Ambulance drivers, attendants, ward assistants and enrolled assistant nurses were among the medical personnel who all walked off the job Monday demanding immediate payment of "outstanding allowances," The Jamaican Gleaner reported.
Jamaica Workers Union (JWU) delegate, Paula Bolton told The Gleaner workers were willing to set reclassification and the seven per cent increase promised to them aside, but are demanding monies owed to them since 2007.
"What we get to understand is that the finance ministry says the Government has no money because we had asked for the reclassification amount plus the seven per cent increase and the allowance."
Angry health workers at the Linstead Hospital in St Catherine protested outside the hospital's
gate. Medical staff from Bellevue Hospital in east Kingston who also joined the protest say they had no choice but to take industrial action.
Health records clerk, Angella Lobban-Rhooms, who works at the Linstead Hospital in Saint Catherine Parish told The Gleaner that in light of price increases and other expenses, the Government should fulfil its promises.
While the workers stance is understandable, the argument and ensuing strike harmed innocent bystanders -- patients in need of medical attention like a pregnant woman, and a 16-year-old boy who identified himself as Troy who was retuning to the hospital for weekly treatments after he was shot more than a month ago.
Both were amongst many ailing islanders turned away from the Kingston Public Hospital (KPH) without treatment due to a lack of medical personnel.
"Everybody a walk past me and nobody nah say nothing to me. It look like me have to try get a different date," Troy told the Jamaican Gleaner.
Read more on this story HERE
Ambulance drivers, attendants, ward assistants and enrolled assistant nurses were among the medical personnel who all walked off the job Monday demanding immediate payment of "outstanding allowances," The Jamaican Gleaner reported.
Jamaica Workers Union (JWU) delegate, Paula Bolton told The Gleaner workers were willing to set reclassification and the seven per cent increase promised to them aside, but are demanding monies owed to them since 2007.
"What we get to understand is that the finance ministry says the Government has no money because we had asked for the reclassification amount plus the seven per cent increase and the allowance."
Angry health workers at the Linstead Hospital in St Catherine protested outside the hospital's
gate. Medical staff from Bellevue Hospital in east Kingston who also joined the protest say they had no choice but to take industrial action.
Health records clerk, Angella Lobban-Rhooms, who works at the Linstead Hospital in Saint Catherine Parish told The Gleaner that in light of price increases and other expenses, the Government should fulfil its promises.
While the workers stance is understandable, the argument and ensuing strike harmed innocent bystanders -- patients in need of medical attention like a pregnant woman, and a 16-year-old boy who identified himself as Troy who was retuning to the hospital for weekly treatments after he was shot more than a month ago.
Both were amongst many ailing islanders turned away from the Kingston Public Hospital (KPH) without treatment due to a lack of medical personnel.
"Everybody a walk past me and nobody nah say nothing to me. It look like me have to try get a different date," Troy told the Jamaican Gleaner.
Read more on this story HERE
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