Nurses Association scores victory: Midwifery Board to be reconstituted with the PNO as deputy chairman

“Midwifery is safe!”

That sentence, uttered with thanksgiving to God, by Laurellyn Williams,
president of the Antigua and Barbuda Nurses Association, sums up the victory
achieved on Thursday, June 27, the third day of the organization’s picket.

While the nurses chanted, sang, and displayed placards outside the Office of
the Prime Minister, on Queen Elizabeth Highway, Nurse Williams and other
colleagues, including the embattled principal nursing officer (PNO), Sister
Margaret Smith, were engaged in a meeting with Prime Minister Gaston
Browne, Attorney-General Sir Steadroy Benjamin, and the permanent
secretary in the Ministry of Health.

Conspicuously absent was Minister of Health Sir Molwyn Joseph, whom the
Association had accused of unilaterally removing the PNO from the national
Midwifery Board.

Reports from the meeting say the policy-makers listened and agreed with the
Association’s contention: that the PNO plays a vital role in regulating nursing
and midwifery practices in Antigua and Barbuda.

Accordingly, the Cabinet Members have agreed to dissolve the current board
that Sir Molwyn reportedly had installed and put a proper board in place.
In the new arrangement, the Association president says, the principal nursing
officer will be reinstated to the Board and assume the position of deputy
chairman to help guide its processes.

This meeting follows the Executive’s decision, on Wednesday, to have the
permanent secretary convene a session with the PNO and others “in order to
reach a compromise, so that the nurses can get back to caring for patients.”
The nurses’ protest began on Tuesday, with a picket outside the Ministry of
Health, then moved to the Office of the Prime Minister on the following two
days.

Ironically, the Cabinet had concluded, on Wednesday, that, according to the
governing legislation, The Midwifery Act, CAP 281, the PNO is not one of the
offices mentioned for inclusion on the Board.

However, the Association had already made its case to the public, pointing out
that, for the last 40 years, the PNO had served as registrar/secretary of the
Midwifery Board, serving as its “heart and soul.”