21 August 2018
Allen Chastanet has said that no one who is currently working at Victoria Hospital will be laid off
Prime Minister, Allen Chastanet has said that no one who is currently working at Victoria Hospital will be laid off.
Chastanet told reporters Monday that those who want to move or apply to go to the Owen King EU Hospital (OKEUH), are free to do so.
However he explained that such persons would have to resign from the public service.
“We would pay them their pension at that point, so it’s not like they are losing out on anything else and their new employer would be Millennium Heights,” the PM stated.
“Regardless of whether government is running it as the sole shareholder or whether we are going to be doing a JV (Joint Venture), it’s the same thing and I keep on saying that that decision was made in 2015. We went to the house – we passed a bill called the Millennium Heights bill. All those things were discussed and that’s what the general agreement was on moving forward.”
“The staff at Victoria who don’t get a job – and if in fact we decide to relocate Victoria to a new Victoria, they would be transferred to there. We are also upgrading facilities in Soufriere – there’s going to be need for more nurses and support staff there,” Chastanet observed.
He said services in Dennery and Vieux are also being upgraded, along with health care centres.
According to the Prime Minister, there will be a lot of places where people can be reallocated.
Chastanet said he does not believe that any Saint Lucian should have to play ‘a sacrificial role’ because of bad policy or a change of policy.
