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‘Raising CHCC nurses’ wages necessary’
Commonwealth Health Center internal medicine physician Dr. John Doyle believes it’s essential for the Commonwealth Healthcare Corp. to raise the wages of nurses once they acquire H1-B visas.
CHCC, according to hospital administrator Jesse M. Tudela, is currently working in transitioning all of their CW workers to other employment-based visas.
Doyle said increasing the pay of nurses assures continuity in patient care and other medical services at the CNMI’s lone hospital. “Because [they] can go if they have H1 [visas]. They can go wherever they want. But we need to keep them here.”
He and Tudela said the CHCC, under Muña, is working on that. “This is very important and these are the kind of stuff that [Muña] is working on. All these things are going on with us all the time.”
Doyle added that U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services should have prioritized the CW petitions of “critical employees” of the hospital. “Why are they not given top priority?”
“You take them and grant those [CW1 petitions], then put the rest [other workers] in the lottery. We [hospital] can’t operate without our nurses. And that can’t be blamed on [Muña]. What she’s supposed to do? This is way beyond her control,” said Doyle.
Tudela, who also backed Muña’s re-appointment as CHCC CEO, added they are working hard in making sure that they have enough medical personnel that would provide medical care to all patients in the CNMI.
“[We], starting with our board of trustees, want to ensure that we have the manpower and personnel available to continue with patient care. …We are really working hard in applying and petitioning our CWs to [other] employment-based visas, like H1-B. We are already moving on that chain,” he added.
Most of the CNMI’s foreign nurses hold CW visas. However, no nurse at CHC has been selected for the lottery.
