A DECISION under the former Government to have nurses go on indefinite leave if they did not want to work under the Queen Elizabeth Hospital's (QEH) board has been described as "madness".

Leader of Government Business in the Senate, Senator Maxine McClean, said not only did the decision back in 2005 result in skilled people being immediately lost to the system, but the scramble to replace them was also a disadvantage, causing a ripple effect in the shortage of skills being experienced today.

McClean, describing the decision as "callous", explained that in 2005, some 20 per cent of QEH nurses would have indicated their discomfort in signing onto the new board, but the only option they had was to go home indefinitely.

She promised the situation would be corrected as soon as possible, as she opened debate on the Nurses Bill 2008 in the Upper House yesterday.

"I'm happy that all efforts will be made to reincorporate all of those persons who might have found themselves disadvantaged. Unfortunately, in the process several persons would have left the country, but I'm sure we can seek to bring them back into the system," she said.

Describing nurses as "the pillars of health care in Barbados", McClean said the country, and indeed much of the world, was challenged in terms of having adequate numbers of nurses, and Barbados must critically look at the issue of registration.

She also said any action to register and regulate nurses was critical because Barbados was not immune to the challenges of persons leaving the profession, causing the country to seek persons trained outside of the region.

It was therefore critical, she said, to have a structure that allowed the profession to regulate itself, to evaluate those coming into the profession, and to maintain standards of competence and capability. (RJ)