The Suriname government worried at the brain drain within the nursing profession is introducing a new salary scale in a bid to end the exodus particularly among specialised nurses.
Health, Welfare and Labour Minister, André Misiekaba, said an estimated 1,000 nurses will have left the sector between 2019 and 2025, describing the situation as ‘serious’ because’These people are almost irreplaceable. We will do everything to stop this brain drain,’ Misiekaba said in n interview with the state-owned Suriname Communication Service (CDS).
He said that the new salary scale beginning in November, could result in nurses earning between US$700 and US$1,000 a month with the CDS indicating that the new salaries are is intended to become one of the key instruments for retaining nurses in Suriname.
Misiekaba said allowances for afternoon and on-call shifts, transport, and overtime will continue to be added to the salaries and that salary scale is ‘one step, but an important step’ in the revaluation of healthcare workers.
Differentiation is also being introduced based on education and responsibilities. As healthcare workers become more highly educated, their wages increase, ranging from support staff and nursing assistants to nurses and specialist nurses. In addition, the government is working on measures regarding housing and training.
Starting in October, a programme will be launched together with the Netherlands to train 175 nurses as specialists within a year. Work is also underway on broader cooperation to further strengthen the training capacity of the Elsje Finck-Sanichar College Covab.
‘We want to ensure that the nurses who have stayed do not leave. And that those who have left can return,’ said Misiekaba with the government hinting that to finance the wage adjustment, the plan is to adjust the daily bed rates to market rates.
‘Those daily bed rate figures are all outdated. It has been calculated that a market-rate daily bed rate is in the order of two hundred US dollars,’ said Misiekaba.