The anxiety being experienced by employees attached to the century-old Victoria Hospital, especially nurses, over whether they will keep or lose their jobs when the transition to the Owen King European Union Hospital is made should cease, at least for now.
Earlier this week, Prime Minister Allen Chastanet made it clear that “nobody currently working at Victoria is going to be laid off.”
The prime minister asserted that those employees who wanted to move or apply to the OKEU Hospital are free to do so. He stated that if in fact they are hired by the OKEU Hospital it would mean they would have to resign from the public service.
“We would pay them their pension at that point so it’s not like they are losing out on anything else and their new employer would be Millennium Heights and that’s regardless if government is running it as the sole shareholder or whether we are going to do a JV (Joint Venture). It is the same thing,” Chastanet said.
With government set to announce its plans for St. Jude Hospital, one such plan being to turn the hospital into a 70 – 100 bed health facility, and other health facilities in various districts across the island like Dennery where it is building a polyclinic and in Soufriere where it is in the process of building a new mini hospital, the prime minister said there will be enough places to fit employers of Victoria Hospital not employed with the OKEU Hospital should a decision be taken to close down Victoria Hospital for good.
“I will be announcing very soon the plans for St. Jude where we are proposing to do at least a minimum of 70 to 100 beds. In terms of Victoria we have several options. You have a wellness and mental facility that is grossly under-utilized. If we are saying 20 percent of the building is occupied that would be an exaggeration. So the question comes: should we look at the possibility of upgrading the Mental Wellness to a new Victoria? We believe that we can put 100 beds into that facility,” Chastanet said, noting that with the OKEU holding 120 beds and Victoria Hospital with a bed count of 170 beds there will be extra beds available and somewhere would be needed to place those beds.