STUDENTS AT the Excelsior Department of Nursing Education in Kingston should start receiving overdue increases in their stipend as well as retroactive payments within the next three weeks.
This was reported yesterday by principal Finance Officer at the Ministry of Health, Nigel Logan, in an interview with The Gleaner.
The move comes after the Nursing Students Association at the Excelsior Department of Nursing Education delivered a letter to Minister of Health John Junor, on Tuesday outlining their dissatisfaction with the late payments.
During a media briefing yesterday, the students said that they had been promised an increased stipend which became due in February this year and that the first retroactive payment for the period 1998/1999 had become payable in April 2000. The second, for 1999/2000, would become payable in November.
"We want something tangible now because we have been waiting on answers for quite a long time now," said third year nursing student, Karen Brown. "At least give us the retroactive or something (to) show that they are doing something."
Currently, third year students are paid about $9,500 per month for non-resident stipend while second and third years receive about $3,500 for resident stipend. The increase will see them getting an additional $600 per month. In addition, the move will also begin payment of what students say is over $750,000 owed to them for retroactive stipend.
The finance officer said that the students had not been paid because of resource constraints and that the Ministry had not become aware, early enough, about certain budgetary constraints.
However, since the meeting on Tuesday, Mr. Logan said that the matter had been investigated and that the Ministry had discovered that there was a $4 million shortfall between the amount of money allocated in the budget to the Nursing Department and the actual costs governing the payment of tutor salaries and student stipends for the year.
"The Ministry will make up the shortfall," he said, stating that the decision was taken on Thursday, July 27. Mr. Logan added that the Ministry was now awaiting the costing of retroactive and increased stipend from Excelsior's bursary to start disbursing the funds.
