Gov. Jim Justice addressed his concerns with the Biden administration responses to states on COVID-19. (Photo Provided)

CHARLESTON — Gov. Jim Justice responded Tuesday to remarks made by President Joe Biden regarding COVID-19 response and concerns raised by representatives of West Virginia’s nursing community regarding plans to train new nurses.

Justice was on a conference call Monday with Biden and the nation’s governors where the president laid out his plans to deal with the rise in cases of the omicron COVID-19 variant, including purchasing 500 million at-home coronavirus tests and providing additional support and equipment for hospitals to handle potential spikes in serious cases.

“The bottom line is: We want to assure the American people that we’re prepared,” Biden said on the conference call according to a read-out of the call provided by the White House. “We know what it takes. And as this group of bipartisan governors has shown, we’re going to get through it by working together.”

During that call, Biden told governors to speak up if they had specific needs, though he also told them that much of the immediate response to the rise in cases would have to be up to them.

“Look, there is no federal solution. This gets solved at a state level,” Biden said. “My message to the governors is simple: If you need something, say something, and we, we’re going to have your back in any way we can.”

Justice accused the Biden administration of dropping the ball when it comes to response to the delta COVID-19 variant and now omicron.

“President Biden has had the ball,” Justice said. “Now, what he is saying is ‘no, I don’t want this thing. You take it, states.’ They’ve had control of the testing, the vaccines, the antibodies, the money, the new COVID pills, the medicine, all of the supply chain…and now say ‘nope, I don’t want this. We want the states to handle this.'”

Justice said the White House is panicking because they don’t know what to do, frequently changing guidance and protocols.

“The inconsistency out of Washington is an absolute dog’s mess over and over,” Justice said. “You leave it to the states and we’ll clean it up. We’ll get it right. We’ve gotten it right in West Virginia. It’s not very fair to have control of everything and then say ‘no, you handle it, states.’ That’s not an answer.”

Justice also responded Tuesday to concerns raised by the West Virginia Nurses Association to a plan released last week to recruit and train new nurses in the state.

“I think it’s more of a miscommunication more than anything, but it’s a little disappointing to tell you the honest truth,” Justice said.

Using $48 million in federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act dollars, the state will fully fund the West Virginia Nursing Scholarship program, develop a nursing faculty loan repayment program to encourage nurses to help educate future nurses, and expand access to nursing programs at Concord University in Athens, Glenville State College, and BridgeValley Community and Technical College in South Charleston and Montgomery.

The goal of the plan is to produce more than 2,000 new nurses over the next four years. Justice said more than 1,700 registered nurses declined to renew their nursing licenses over the last year, with 68 percent citing fatigue as the reason they left the profession.

However, in a statement posted on its Facebook page last week, the West Virginia Nurses Association pushed back on the plan for not focusing on retaining registered nurses and licensed practical nurses. They also claim the Governor’s Office never reached out to them.

“While WVNA believes in and supports education, we are disheartened that nursing organizations were not involved in the discussions with Gov. Justice on deciding what to do about the current nursing shortage,” the association stated.

“We asked Gov. Justice for CARES Act money in January of 2021, to help nurses who could not work because of COVID and we couldn’t get it,” the statement continued. “This is why nurses are leaving. Nurses feel unheard, and this is a perfect example of why they are leaving the nursing profession in West Virginia.”

Justice said he consulted with nurses who work for the Department of Health and Human Resources when creating his plan. Justice also said more than $57 million was distributed to hospitals through the Save Our Care program in September to help hospitals and nursing homes retain medical professionals.

“We had to do that to keep nurses from going out of state and everything else…to help with their pay, to help with incentives, to help with all kinds of things,” Justice said. “The hospitals were supposed to take care of the nurses and do all kinds of stuff.”