Minister of Health and Wellness Dr Michael Darville speaks during a press briefing at the Office of The Prime Minister on July 17, 2025. Photo: Dante Carrer/Tribune Staff
By KEILE CAMPBELL
Tribune Staff Reporter
kcampbell@tribunemedia.net
HEALTH Minister Dr Michael Darville said nurses caught up in last month’s pay dispute have now received overtime compensation, attributing the delay to a “technical glitch” now under review after a sick-out disrupted care across public facilities.
The protest erupted late January when nurses, frustrated over delayed overtime and holiday pay dating back to October 2025 in some cases, stayed home en masse, leaving departments short-staffed, patients waiting for hours and some turned away.
Dr Darville said the payments were resolved quickly but acknowledged uncertainty about what failed inside the system.
“It’s very unfortunate how it happened,” Dr Darville said. “I’m still getting into the nuts and bolts of what went wrong, and so we’re looking at some forensic analysis.”
He said finance officers are expected to warn when budget lines are nearing exhaustion and escalate urgent funding needs.
“It’s important for the finance officers to red flag and say, ‘Hey, we having a problem here,’” he said. “When that’s not available, go to finance on an emergency basis.”
Normally, he said, ministries shift allocations internally or send emergency requests to the Ministry of Finance when funds run low.
“It was a technical glitch, and we worked it out very quickly,” he said.
The minister added that new digital monitoring systems should detect shortfalls earlier and prevent a repeat.
“I do it every day in my ministry, the PHA does it. Something happened, that’s water under the bridge, but there was never intention not to pay people what they deserve,” Dr Darville said.
Comments
rosiepi 13 hours, 6 minutes ago
“It was a technical glitch and we worked it out very quickly.” Five mos later? So by blaming his own government’s financial officers Darville would have us believe that he needed a ‘red flag’ notice about non-payment issues, oops “irregularities” in his own department?
Does this guy live under a rock? For he certainly isn’t strolling about his own venues, what’s called healthcare in the Bahamas. Every entity, every person contracted to work (outside of his own department) with his ministry have voiced their concerns and now their anger in the news media, in the corridors of hospitals since 2022 when the worst fears of “New Day/Old Tricks” sunk in. Yea right y’all better start campaigning vigorously!!
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