A weeks-long wage dispute that sparked protest action from medical staff at Dominica’s Dominica-China Friendship Hospital has been resolved, with all owed September salaries now in process of being disbursed to 16 affected physicians, Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit has confirmed. The resolution came out of a coordinated meeting held Wednesday, which brought together top national health officials, hospital executive leadership, local union representatives and the affected doctors to untangle the root of the payment delay and implement long-term fixes to prevent a repeat of the issue. To avoid future administrative disruptions, the Dominican government has announced a permanent shift in payroll responsibility for this group of physicians starting next month.
Skerrit outlined the context of the dispute to clarify widespread misinformation that had suggested all public sector doctors in Dominica were facing payment backlogs. Across the country’s public health network, the government directly employs roughly 70 practicing physicians. The vast majority of these medical professionals receive their salaries and base allowances through the Ministry of Health, a process that has operated without consistent disruption, Skerrit said. The 16 doctors affected by this week’s protests were unique: they were recruited directly by the Dominica-China Friendship Hospital Authority, an independent body that manages the facility, rather than through the national Ministry of Health.
Administrative misalignment in the hospital authority’s payroll system is the most likely cause of the missed September payments, according to the prime minister. Skerrit added that a separate, smaller issue of unpaid allowances also remains under review, with between two and four doctors impacted by that additional discrepancy in recent months. That clarification issue is also on track to be resolved by the end of the week, he noted.
As of Skerrit’s post-meeting statement, a cheque covering the full value of the 16 doctors’ owed September salaries had already been transferred to the hospital authority, and the individual deposits to the physicians’ personal bank accounts were already underway. Looking ahead, the government will take over full payroll responsibility for these directly recruited doctors starting in October, moving their payment processing from the hospital authority to the Ministry of Health’s existing, well-established payroll system. The national government has already allocated extra, dedicated funding to the Ministry of Health to cover this new payroll obligation.
Skerrit emphasized that Wednesday’s talks were held in a respectful, solution-focused atmosphere, with all parties aligned on resolving the outstanding worker concerns. He acknowledged that the Dominican public health system continues to face ongoing structural challenges, but pushed back against any narrative that the government has neglected investment in healthcare. For years, the administration has prioritized expanding access to medical training for local workers and recruiting qualified physicians to expand care access across the island, Skerrit said, and the government remains committed to continuing that investment to strengthen the national health sector.