The Nurs­ing As­so­ci­a­tion has raised con­cerns over the gov­ern­ment’s plans to open the Cou­va Chil­dren’s Hos­pi­tal, warn­ing that the move could place ad­di­tion­al strain on the coun­try’s health­care sys­tem. The as­so­ci­a­tion, which has been ac­tive in health­care ad­vo­ca­cy for more than 15 years, called on pol­i­cy­mak­ers to pri­ori­tise staff re­ten­tion, pro­fes­sion­al train­ing, and pri­ma­ry health­care.

In a Face­book post, the as­so­ci­a­tion high­light­ed staffing and ex­per­tise chal­lenges in the sec­tor. It not­ed that there have been no record­ed in­stances of chil­dren be­ing de­nied care or a bed at the Wendy Fitzwilliam Chil­dren’s Hos­pi­tal at the Er­ic Williams Med­ical Sci­ences Com­plex, or at the pae­di­atric units at San Fer­nan­do and San­gre Grande hos­pi­tals.

On Sun­day, Cou­va South MP Bar­ry Padarath an­nounced that the Cou­va Chil­dren’s Hos­pi­tal is ex­pect­ed to re­ceive its first in­take of young pa­tients in the com­ing weeks.