Minister Of Health Says Input From Every Level Welcomed To Improve Health Sector
Basseterre, St. Kitts, July 01, 2020 (ZIZ News)
By: Chaïra Flanders
Minister of Health, Hon. Akilah Byron Nisbett says her aim is to listen to the concerns of as many persons as possible to find ways to improve service for all in the health sector.
She made the statement during a recent interview with ZIZ, where she outlined the importance of hearing the concerns of others as the new Minister.
“I am doing what I’m calling a listening tour, especially in health in particular. First I am meeting with the Management/Staff, but my intention is to meet with all staff right down to the cleaners, the people in the kitchen, the nurses everybody because I want to hear from them. And the intention is to hear, what are your concerns? How do you feel from where you sit? How do you feel we can improve health? Then from that, we can determine that these are the things that we can fix right away because you know that during the campaign we would have spoken at the high level [stating that] the facilities need to be refurbished, the brand new hospital that is coming but then we also need to know at the staff level what are the things in terms of your working environment that we can change to make it more comfortable”, she explained.
Byron-Nisbett said she will continue to have multiple meetings with staff in the Ministry of Health so that an all-in approach is adopted during the decision making process.
“It’s a get to know me, get to know you, get to understand the way you feel about your work or your environment and how we can work together to fix that. So those are a series of meetings that I am having thus far and I am hopeful that at the end of it that we can come to an agreement that these are the things that we can fix and change to make things better particularly for our nursing staff who give care. We need to make sure they are motivated to work and so whatever we can do to make their environment more comfortable we will do that”, the Health Minister expressed.
She said considering that she is also the Minister of ICT, Entertainment, Entrepreneurship and Talent Development, the same can be expected in those areas as well.