T&T Na­tion­al Nurs­es As­so­ci­a­tion (TTNNA) is call­ing for ur­gent wage ne­go­ti­a­tions to be­gin, warn­ing that grow­ing frus­tra­tion among health­care work­ers is al­ready dis­rupt­ing ser­vices, with the Er­ic Williams Med­ical Com­plex (EWMC) se­vere­ly short-staffed over the week­end.

TTNNA pres­i­dent Idi Stu­art told Guardian Me­dia yes­ter­day, the as­so­ci­a­tion has writ­ten to the chief ex­ec­u­tive of­fi­cers of the Re­gion­al Health Au­thor­i­ties (RHAs), urg­ing them to move swift­ly to set­tle ne­go­ti­a­tions in the in­ter­est of pub­lic health, pa­tient safe­ty and in­dus­tri­al sta­bil­i­ty.

“We want ne­go­ti­a­tions to start as soon as pos­si­ble,” Stu­art said. “The sen­ti­ment on the ground right now is ex­treme­ly volatile. It would be in the Gov­ern­ment’s best in­ter­est, par­tic­u­lar­ly in the health sec­tor, to re­solve these is­sues quick­ly.”