Members of Nurses Association in Antigua and Barbuda
Open Letter: To the Honorable Minister of Health, Wellness and the Environment, The Executive of the Antigua and Barbuda Nurses Association, And the Concerned Public,
I write this letter not merely as a nurse, but as a heartbroken citizen, a weary professional, and a voice for countless colleagues who feel silenced. It is with profound disappointment, simmering anger, and utter disbelief that I express our collective anguish over the continued degradation of the nursing and midwifery profession in Antigua and Barbuda.
The recent arrival of nurses from Ghana, under the newly passed act, has served as the final insult—a glaring symbol of a government and a system that refuses to see, hear, or value its own. While international collaboration is not inherently wrong, the manner in which this was executed is disgraceful. To our utter dismay, the Antigua and Barbuda Nurses Association (ABNA), the legitimate representative body of the very professionals at the core of this crisis, appears to have been sidelined and not genuinely consulted. This is not inclusion; this is imposition.
This policy is a mere Band-Aid on a gangrenous wound. You seek to import hands to fill vacancies while actively ignoring why those vacancies exist in the first place. Our locally trained, highly skilled nurses and midwives are fleeing. They are not leaving for wanderlust; they are escaping:
* Poverty wages that do not reflect our critical role, our expertise, or the cost of living.
* Debilitating working conditions: chronic understaffing that burns out even the most dedicated.
* A blatant lack of respect and professional victimization when we dare to advocate for our patients or ourselves, only to be labeled “political.”
* Stagnant careers with little to no upward mobility or access to specialized educational opportunities.
* A systemic environment that is fundamentally abusive, where our dedication is exploited as a perpetual given.
And what do we see? Nurses brought from abroad are, in some cases, offered better packages—housing, transportation, incentives that local nurses can only dream of. Yet, when their contracts end, they too often leave. We are left to train them, to guide them, to share our limited resources and institutional knowledge, without additional compensation or recognition, only to be left behind once more. We feel used and abused by a system that sees us as disposable, and by a cycle that perpetuates our misery.
The crisis is not merely a “staffing” issue. It is an issue of fundamental dignity and infrastructure. Our healthcare system is crumbling physically. Many clinics are housed in dilapidated, outdated buildings. We work in environments without reliable running water, without consistent air conditioning in this brutal heat, without backup generators—conditions that would be deemed unacceptable for any other essential service. How can we provide quality care in such decay? The solution is not just more bodies in a broken building; it is to fix the building.
The most recent, and perhaps most personally painful, slap in the face was the grand banquet to welcome the new arrivals. The symbolism is crushing. During Nurses Week, our sacrifice is met with silence. At Christmas, our year-round vigilance earns no gesture of thanks. We cannot get a simple plate of food or a genuine “thank you” for holding this system together with our bare hands and fraying nerves. Yet, for newcomers, there is a public celebration. This is not hospitality; this is a stark demonstration of where your priorities lie. It screams that you will invest in everyone and everything except the professionals who have given their lives to this country’s health.
We are not asking for banquets. We are demanding:
1. Meaningful consultation and recognition of the ABNA in all matters affecting nursing and midwifery.
2. Immediate, serious, and good-faith negotiations for a living wage and competitive compensation that reflects our value and stops the exodus.
3. A comprehensive plan to overhaul our working environments, including urgent refurbishment of clinics and provision of essential resources (water, power, air conditioning).
4. Clear, accessible pathways for career advancement and continuing education.
5. An end to the victimization and political labeling of nurses who speak out for better patient care and professional standards.
We are the backbone of healthcare in Antigua and Barbuda. We are the hands that catch your newborns, the calm in your emergencies, the comfort in your pain, and the vigil at your final hour. We are tired of being treated as the problem, when we are, and have always been, the solution.
The band-aid must come off. It is time to address the festering wound with surgery, honesty, and respect. Stop importing solutions and start valuing the ones you already have.
Sincerely,
A Deeply Concerned and Heartbroken Registered Nurse
Well said. Take care of your own first.
I understand and agree completely with the concerns raised. What I cannot understand is how nurses and midwives in Antigua and Barbuda are deemed “too expensive” to be adequately compensated however unable to afford land, build a home, or live with basic comfort, yet the government can sustain the recruitment of over 100 nurses from Ghana. Regardless of origin, labour is never free. These nurses must be paid, housed, and supported.
What is conveniently ignored is that it is local nurses who now shoulder the additional burden of orienting, training, and supervising these recruits, while still carrying the full weight of already overstretched departments. This comes with no additional compensation, no reduction in workload, and no recognition. Instead of fixing the conditions driving nurses away, the system places yet another strain on those who remain.
And then we are asked, with straight faces, why nurses are leaving.
Now the hospital may appear “fully staffed.” I am sure this is being framed as a success; perhaps even a dream realized by leadership that has openly stated it is not their concern if nurses resign because they can simply be replaced. That mindset explains precisely why resignation letters continue to pile up. Replacing bodies is not the same as retaining professionals.
Leadership requires more than credentials. It requires advocacy, foresight, and respect for the workforce that sustains the institution. When experienced nurses are treated as disposable, morale collapses, quality suffers, and the system corrodes from within.
If nurses are leaving in unprecedented numbers, the issue is not loyalty or attitude; it is policy, pay, working conditions, and leadership. Until those realities are honestly addressed, no amount of imported labour will heal a broken system.
Typical humans…….the nurses here, just like government workers everywhere do not have patience or customer service. Most are hostile and mad because you ask them to do their jobs. Ghanaian nurses are here now, so yal now have All the time in the world to play candy crush and ignore persons cries for help while in agony. Do the job or someone else will be asked to do it for you! Yak treat citizens like crap majority of the time and the complaints keep rising. Yal go to other places live, work, procreate etc. Why can’t others do the same in your land?
Sir Molwyn Joseph
Minister of Health, Wellness & The Environment is to blame he has no vision on health care, we need young people with vision for the future, nurses and doctors not happy over worked and under paid, clinics old and dilapidated, not enough equipment for dialysis, cancer, asthma ect, we need a overhaul, plus classes to teach nurses how to treat the sick with respect and compassion guess they acting paygrade, we are grateful for health professionals but improving the health care in Antigua is a must listen to their grievances and fix it or we need strikes.
Let us not refer to the nurses that brought in by the government all the problem existed before they got here, blame Sir Molwyn Joseph let us look back on the condition of our health care deplorable, waiting in ER if brought in by ambulance or walk in, ppl sitting on ground in hallways, pregnant women dying, equipment, old ambulance with no updated equipments and medicine, clinics old and out dated, pharmacies out of life saving medication, medical benefits the approval process is wickedness when ppl trying to have surgery, this man is out of touch, we need these matters to be dealt with ASAP
Like the saying goes is who in the kitchen that feeling the heat
PM Gaston Browne you are one man you can’t do everything on your on reason we elected other ministers, please look into this health care crisis in Antigua and Barbuda, the man at the top must go get a woman to run we need ppl with compassion not the GOOD OLD BOYS, YOU HAVE TO GO TO THEIR OFFICES FOR FAVORS WINK WINK put all joke aside we need your help after God you are the head.
Hope them weĺl train cause am gonna sorry for the patient