PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, Apr 28, CMC – The Trinidad and Tobago National Nursing Association (TTNNA) Tuesday embarked upon “total nursing care” action as it continues its protest over the “silence from the Government regarding long-overdue salary increases for Regional Health Authority (RHA) workers.
In a statement posted on its Facebook page, the TTNNA, which has been staging several protest marches over the past few months over salary increases said the “Day of Reflection” on April 28, will “will enforce a national Nurse-to-Patient Ratio Policy.
“No Registered Nurse (RN) is to care for more than six (6) patients on a general ward. If this ratio cannot be met, nurses must immediately notify Nursing Supervisors upon assuming duty.”
In addition, the TTNA said that “all excess patients must be assigned to additional nursing staff who must be sent to the ward, otherwise those patients will be left unattended and management will be held liable.
“Nurses are to provide Total Patient Care to their assigned patients to the highest professional standard,” it said, adding that “TTNNA will no longer tolerate unsafe practices or compromised patient care.
“These conditions have negatively affected both patient outcomes and public perception of the nursing profession—factors that appear to influence policymakers’ failure to recognize the true value of nurses,” the TTNNA said, adding that the “Day of Reflection “will also serve as a moment of reflection for all healthcare workers.
“The Association calls on you to examine your April 2026 pay slip, which still reflects 2013 salary levels, and ask Has this Government honoured its promises made in its manifesto and during its campaign to increase RHA workers’ salaries?
“The struggle continues. We will never surrender. The Blue Army is coming,” it warned.
But in an interview published in the Trinidad Express newspaper on Tuesday marking the first anniversary of her United National Congress (UNC) led coalition administration, Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar said “anyone is free to protest within the law but it does not affect my decision -making.
“I will do what I have to do, when I have to do it based on the data presented in the best interest of the country,” she said, adding that her government has “delivered on our promise of 10 per cent wage increase for workers”.
She said 17,000 Public Service Association (PSA) workers and families are receiving their 10 per cent, so too are 20,000 National Union of Government and Federated Workers (NUGFW) workers and 14,000 teachers are receiving their new salaries.
But TTNNA president, Idi Stuart, speaking on local media said that while the government is celebrating on Tuesday that it had been able to inform the public that it had saved TT150 million (one TT dollar=US$0.16 cents) “because you’re not hiring enough staff.
We are not going to tolerate that anymore. Seeing that the government is unwilling to bend, well then we are unwilling to bend,” Stuart said, adding that his membership won’t be celebrating the government’s one-year anniversary in office.
“While the government is celebrating their one-year anniversary and all of that, we want you to reflect that you remain on 2013 salaries. So when you get your salary and your pay slip, reflect on what you can do with these 2013 salaries.
“Reflect if the government is really understanding the pain and suffering you are going through, the inability to afford goods and services,” he added.
CMC/ag/ir/2026