Hygienist hiatus May 21, 2007
I was in an interesting conversation today with a hygienist, who told me that she was about to leave the Island in a few months time. Her co-worker, another foreign worker also chimed in and said the same thing. That’s two hygienists leaving about the same time from the same firm. Now it’s no secret that there is a shortage in the dental field, as anyone who’s attempted to get in with a dentist firm can attest to. Most dentist firms are simply refusing any new clientele at all, so loosing just two is going to impact the community.
The reason why they are leaving is quite simply due to the length of time it took for their permits to be approved, something I can attest to myself. Permits were on a 10 month waiting period in many cases and only just started to be processed. Meanwhile people who were unsure as to their future on this Island had no choice but to make plans elsewhere. Quite simply this isn’t good enough, nor is the term limits plan either for that matter. Hatchet plans rarely work, especially when there aren’t any plans in place to compensate for the loss.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m a strong supporter of having as many Bermudians in all fields of work, but anyone who would suggest that we don’t need foreign works is a fool, plain and simple. We need something that is more mid ground. As I’ve said it before, I feel that we should have an apprenticeship program where a Bermudian is trained under a foreign worker, and I feel that it should be supported, and in cases, partially compensated by Government. The way it stands now, we are going to start to see gaps in many fields of work which are already under stress from a sheer lack of people resources.
Case in point, I was told that within the next year, we are most likely going to lose eight hygienists in total. Attempts to recruit any local talent has come up without a single hit and attracting people to work in the field from overseas is difficult, not only due to the nature of the work, but also the simple fact that Bermuda is a small fish in a very large pond.
Ultimately this puts even more stress on the local business, however it would appear that this falls on deaf ears as one of the dentists were told that “That’s not my problem” from a government official. Nice. Next time said Government Official tries in vain to get a dentist appointment they may suddenly realise that it actually is their problem. But then again myopia runs rampant with our current government doesn’t it?
Technorati Tags: Bermuda, dentists, government, hygeinistYou may also want to read these last 5 posts in Off on a rant
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- Posted in : Off on a rant
- Author :Sean
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