‘Linden has too many registered nurses, nursing assistants: govt says in justifying closing Charles Rosa 

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The Ministry of Health (MOH) has temporarily suspended the latest batch of students to be accepted at the Charles Rosa School of Nursing in Region 10, Upper Demerara/Berbice due to an excess of registered nurses in the Region.

This is according to a recent statement made by MOH after the APNU/AFC Coalition called the Ministry out for suspending the Registered Nursing Programme and Nursing Assistants Programme without adequate notice and explanation.

In the statement made by MOH, it was noted that the Charles Rosa School of Nursing in Region 10 is envisioned to train all eligible Guyanese who are desirous of pursuing a career in nursing. However, over the years, the school has trained persons mostly from Region 10, while persons from other regions such as 1,7,8 and 9 were given insignificant placements.

Moreover, the release highlighted that a recent evaluation of nursing personnel in all ten of Guyana’s regions show that Region 10 is the lone region with an excess of 233 registered nurses and 106 registered nursing assistants.

The release noted, that all other regions have shortages of trained nurses, and have identified qualified persons for training at the Charles Rosa Nursing School who were not selected to be a part of the school’s latest intake, Batch 66 and Class 17.
Reports indicated that Batch 66 began classes in April 2021 with 34 nursing students of which 24 were from Region 10. Meanwhile, Class 17 began classes with 33 nursing assistant students of which 21 were from Region 10.

As such, the release noted that the two programmes, Batch 66 and Class 17, have been temporary suspended to ensure that the intake of students reflect the Regions where MOH have the greatest need for trained nurses.

Meanwhile, in a press release the APNU /AFC Coalition called the decision made by MOH to suspend the two programmes “premature and foolhardy”.

The Coalition highlighted that the decision made was done during a pandemic that is causing chaos in Guyana, COVID-19 cases are climbing sharply, deaths are increasing and nurses are needed more than ever.
Additionally, the APNU/AFC Coalition called on the Government of Guyana and MOH to be inclusive in the training of healthcare professionals.

Nevertheless, the MOH accused the APNU/AFC of peddling misinformation and seeking to politicize the situation.
The Ministry went on to assure all Guyanese that it would take the necessary corrective actions to ensure that all the eligible students from the regions across Guyana will be granted access to the Charles Rosa Nursing School training programmes.
The Ministry will review Batch 66 and Class 17 to balance the intake before classes can restart.

In an interview done with students of Batch 66, Village Voice was told that the decision made by the MOH the two programmes has left the youths in much distress and anxiety.

One of the nursing student who hails from Region 10 told this publication that the situation is devastating and unfair because she has been waiting close to two years to begin the programme, and even left her job to attend classes only to end up with nothing to do.
“Some of us applied since in 2019, then we were to start since last year and they told us we had to wait for them to get some stuff in order. This is very devastating and I am sure my batch mates feel the same way because it left a lot of us without a job because individuals like myself had to leave their jobs to attend nursing school and we were already replaced and it is hard to stay home and do nothing,” the anonymous student expressed.

After showing up for classes on April 29, 2021, the first year nursing students were informed by the Principal of the school, Hilary Christopher that the programme has been suspended with immediate effect until further notice. He said the directives came from the Ministry of Health.

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