Cabinet Approves New Retention Packages for Nurses to Combat Brain Drain

Nurses will soon see an adjustment in their salary and allowances packages as Cabinet has approved the development of what they call ‘retention packages’.  For years, Belize’s health sector has been at a disadvantage with first world countries luring skilled workers, particularly nurses, to work abroad.  It is a brain-drain phenomenon that the past and current government have lamented for years with no move to address or quell, that is, until now.  In a Cabinet Brief issued today, the Briceno Administration announced the development of revised packages for the health workers.  According to Minister of State for Finance, Christopher Coye, it will be implemented in phases.

Senator Christopher Coye, Minister of State (Finance): “The retention package includes a slew of allowances to,  as it says, seek to keep nurses as part of the  public sector workforce on a continuing basis, enhancing the compensation to them. Nurses, the data on it, we’ve been losing quite a bit of nurses to better paying jurisdictions, if you will. And that certainly does not bode well for health services provided by our public sector. So it’s important that we not only retain but look to attract more nurses into the public sector and in effect train more nurses to build and rebuild the  provision of health services. As far as the sourcing of funding for it, mean, it’s nothing new. We are in the process of finalizing the budget for the fiscal year that we we’re basically about to be in or are in and those funds come from tax revenues.”

It is to be noted that the retention packages of allowances will be for the nurses employed in the public health system.