(Kaieteur News) – These are the words of a registered nurse who has served in Guyana’s public healthcare system since 2018. Pushed to breaking point, she recently worked full 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. shifts, Monday through Friday, for three consecutive months — without receiving a single cent in salary. Last year, her situation was even worse: she went eight agonising months without pay.

Her ordeal is not an isolated incident. It is the harsh reality facing contract healthcare workers under the Ministry of Health (MOH), where bureaucratic delays, lost files, and archaic paper-based recordkeeping leave frontline staff drowning in debt, mental exhaustion, and hopelessness.

The crisis stems from a shift in the public health sector away from permanent employment and toward contractual engagements requiring periodic renewal. With every renewal window, however, comes a predictable, systemic collapse in payroll processing.