Healthcare workers, politicians protest attack on nurse by motorist

 

From the Corporate Area to rural Jamaica, outrage, fear and frustration spilled onto the streets Monday as healthcare workers filled roadways demanding justice after one of their own was battered at gunpoint by a male motorist in an apparent case of road rage. 

 

From a rousing march along the University Hospital of the West Indies Ring Road to flanking the sidewalks of the National Workers Union along East Street, just above the Tax Administration Jamaica building, dozens of nurses hoisted placards and chanted "We want justice!" in anger and fear under the pelting sun.

 

Their message was clear: a grave injustice was done and the violence must stop.

 

Nurses from Spanish Town Hospital in St. Catherine also gathered along Burke Road to protest the attack on their colleague. In the afternoon, the rally went further into Spanish Town. 

 

The first responders say the protests are cries for safety in a profession where care is given but too often not returned. 

 

Nurses and doctors assigned to the Port Antonio Hospital in Portland also staged a march. Director of Nursing Services at the hospital, Kerry-Ann Brian Anderson, said despite the assault, healthcare workers have remained committed to caring for those who need help. 

 

"It has not really affected our work, so we ensure that the patients at the hospital and the health departments, they are taken care of. Some of us would have stayed back. While we balance what we need to stand for, we still ensure that the public is being cared for," she told Radio Jamaica News.

 

Meanwhile, her Port Maria counterpart, Sharon Golding Hibbert, appealed for a reevaluation of how gun licences are issued. 

 

"More should have been done in terms of the investigation. We were also hoping to hear if his firearm has been seized. We have not heard that. And we also want the FLA [to look] into how they allocate guns and gun licences to persons within the jurisdiction because it begs the question of how they are assessed because clearly also this gentleman needs anger management," she suggested. 

 

In Westmoreland, nurses at Savanna-la-Mar Hospital also joined the protest.

 

Health Minister Dr. Christopher Tufton has since indicated that Monday's actions have not caused any disruption to the administering of care across health facilities. 

 

The Health Minister, his opposition counterpart Dr. Alfred Dawes, Gender Minister Olivia Grange and Senator Dr. Saphire Longmore were among members of the political directorate who joined nurses in the protest.

 

Dr. Tufton, who was among the protesters in Kingston, said he has been in dialogue with the nurse's husband.

 

"I have been reassured and I have reassured him that she will get the best possible care, not just the medical, clinical, but psychological because it was a very traumatic experience. The first order of business is to restore. Second is to just speak to the brutality of the act and to ensure that the legal system and the justice system is brought to bear so that the justice is served. The police have investigated the matter. They have made arrest and that process will play out and we would like to see it to a speedy conclusion."

 

Dr. Tufton also underscored the importance of healthcare workers and specifically nurses, calling them the "stabilising force in our public health system" who operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week because of the nature of their job. 

 

The health minister, while emphasizing that violence against women is wrong, said he has a role to play in ensuring appropriate parliamentary action is taken to "bring whatever policy or legislation to strenghten the arrangements to give our women, children, healthcare workers the support that they deserve". 

 

Meanwhile, Opposition Spokesman on Health and Wellness, Dr. Alfred Dawes, said he is in disbelief that in 2025, people still have to protest against violence directed at women and children.

 

"We are supposed to be a civilized society. A civilized society is one that looks out for its most vulnerable and it is unfortunate that our women are still subject to violence of this sort of nature.... But I stand here not only as someone who holds their career beholden to the kindness and caring of nurses as well as the tutelage, but a man who has a mother, a wife, a sister, a niece. And what I saw here could have been anyone," noted Dr. Dawes.