<B>By Raj Jugernauth</B>

The former government worked hard on a retention plan for nurses. The country needs more than 3,000 nurses for a good health service. During the last three years, around 700 nurses have left the country.

Unfortunately, the high-powered committee published recently and considered very generous by outsiders has already been dubbed a non-retention plan by the two major nursing trade unions. The Nurses Union and the Nursing Association expect around 100 more nurses to leave the country this year.

Those expected to resign to join the National Health Service in Great Britain or public hospitals in New Zealand are usually specialised nurses, trained to work in operation theatres, cardiology centres, physiotherapy departments, etc. This type of nurses is very difficult to replace.

The law of demand and supply plays today in favour of nurses all around the world. There are not enough nurses. During these last years, the United States lost around 500 thousand nurses, who quitted this job to start new careers in other sectors.

The reason is simple: no status is attached to this job and perspectives in this career are limited. Those who decide to leave do so, whatever the sum of money proposed to retain them. So the USA, Europe, Australia and New Zealand are very busy poaching nurses, especially qualified ones from around the world.

It is no secret that the Mauritian government will never be able to offer our nurses the same salary packages than those offered elsewhere.

We buy the argument of the high-powered committee when it says that offering more to nurses would have a boomerang effect on the whole civil service salary structure. But we beg to differ when it comes to training and facilities to be granted to those nurses for further education.

Our nursing staff is young and young Mauritians are keen to learn to improve their lot. BSc, MSc and even PhD in nursing are today available. We cannot follow the high-powered committee’s decision not to grant all the facilities to nurses wishing to train through different courses.

In fact, if we read between the lines; a nurse with a BSc will very easily land on a good job overseas. So opening facilities for further training might encourage the exodus.

I have personally known a nurse with a BSc nursing working in a dispensary in Flic-en-Flac. He was better than a Russian-trained doctor I used to know. This nurse was an asset to the region and to the country and allowing nurses to get training and courses for university degrees should be encouraged and welcomed.

It is a foolish policy, and very undemocratic to prevent these people from getting university training by correspondence or whatever formula. In fact, it is high time that the ministry starts thinking about this type of training for export.

Phillipines, for instance, is a country, which has got the right formula. The number of nurses from that country joining the NHS of Great Britain is astounding. These nurses send back foreign currency to their homeland, work hard and, when they have gathered enough money and… experience, they come back and settle in their homeland.

Has anyone in Mauritius thought about the Phillipines Formula ? And the Phillipines is not the only country working in that direction.

The new minister of Health was an ex-magistrate. The ex-minister of health was a lawyer. They both had not even an iota of managerial skills and were absolute novices in the health service. Why on earth does Mauritius have to inherit these nonsense. Putting between the hands of such people our whole health system.

We just hope that minister Faugoo will very quickly catch the name of the game.