Health Ministry Responds to Doctor’s Strike

Health and Wellness Minister Dr Christopher Tuftton has directed the Regional Health Authorities and the University Hospital of the West Indies to take immediate steps to address concerns raised about the working and living conditions of medical interns following complaints from the Jamaica Medical Doctor's Association (JMDA).

 

Hospitals are to conduct 72-hour inspections of intern accommodation facilities with urgent repairs required for any safety, structural, or sanitary issues identified.

 

Medical supervisors must also review duty rosters while human resource departments are to assess staffing gaps within five working days.

 

Additional mental health and wellness support will be provided for the medical interns. The ministry says 232 medical interns are expected to be in post by July 1 with further placements expected after upcoming examination results. The health ministry also says a revised internship placement framework is to be submitted to cabinet for review.

 

Dr Tufton said, “I think it's important that this issue be viewed in the context of leadership and management and we all have a role to play, and there's no doubt, including policy and the minister and the ministry – but in the future dispensation around these issues we have to speak to institutions, managers, this is CEOs and SMOs, Regional Authorities, parish managers, and where necessary, the minister, of course, and the support team at corporate.”

 

He said the accountability framework that the ministry has signed requires that level of detail and specificity to determine where things are falling down because it is not always a resource issue.

 

“I keep emphasizing, in this instance at the University Hospital of the West Indies where nurses at A&E took action and withdrew their services, when management wards and did inspections, there were over 50 beds that were available to house patients.”