Sunday Sips with HG Helps | Tufton right to bash health staff; Nothing wrong with Holness’s World Cup trip; Vigilante justice must stop, and where is the water?

Tufton right about healthcare workers

To some, Dr Christopher Tufton will go down in history as Jamaica’s worst minister of health.

And there is enough evidence that under his now unfortunate 10-year under-performance as policy head of one of Jamaica’s most important ministries, he has flopped, big time, in the process of managing key areas of healthcare.

They include more neonatal deaths, the COVID-19 pandemic, the general suffering at public medical locations, the firing of Cuban medical staff, broken-down equipment, and cost overruns at medical institutions, foremost among them, Cornwall Regional Hospital, which has seen an initial bill of $2 billion sprint faster than Usain Bolt to be hovering at $25 billion. 

More exists.

It must be treated as historic that in the midst of so many blunders and acts of mismanagement, the prime minister, one Andrew Holness, continues to not only keep Dr Tufton in the Cabinet, but still has him in charge of the health portfolio.

Last week, Dr Tufton was highly critical of workers in the health sector for its decline, in response to industrial action that was taken by some members. He was correct to have done so, because that is the reality. But he must remember that as minister, he has the ultimate authority to correct so many of the ills of poor performance by those in the sector who have been so fingered.

One of the areas of the minister’s discontent is the lack of empathy shown by healthcare workers – something that has cost so many lives to be lost, starting from several years before Dr Tufton was even born. The fact that the lack of empathy still remains as an active ingredient in the many vaccines that flow through the sector means that the minister and the policymakers before him flopped in a humongous way.

The way that staff in public medical facilities treat those seeking to improve their health is abominable. There is no respect, unless you are seen as some kind of big shot or exceedingly popular individual, not just when the sick first arrive at a facility, as Dr Tufton said, but for the duration of their stay.

I have seen it first hand … no hearsay nonsense. That manifested itself even last Wednesday when I visited Kingston Public Hospital to see about someone’s welfare. KPH is the foremost institution of healthcare in the Caribbean region, except Cuba. On my latest visit, workers, from security guards and porters to the nitty-gritty medics, were conducting themselves as if suffering and pain were on vacation.

Not showing empathy to the sick ranks highly with lack of drugs and equipment as the serious challenges affecting healthcare. I’m sure that if some sick people turn up at a hospital for treatment at times, if the healthcare workers shock them by addressing them in a reassuring way, they would get out of their wheelchairs, or seats, and go right back home, pleased that the stunning customer service experience had cured them of whatever ailed them.

Dr Tufton also cited poor management of the system by officials, including the failure of the people in charge to provide adequate bed count, so as not to leave patients in crowded areas, like emergency rooms.

He blamed consultants for not fulfilling their contract hours, and CEOs for failing to manage facilities.

It’s quite odd, but why would there not be action from the level of the minister if officials at the management level neglect to do the right things? I wonder if some of those same management personnel were chosen purely along political lines, incompetent as some may be, and so they turn out to be lost in the real medical world when certain basic decisions are to be taken? Dr Tufton should look at that aspect too. 

The Jamaica Medical Doctors Association demanded a retraction from Dr Tufton, but none is necessary. There are some in the system who continue to flout the laws and regulations. There are those too, who use resources from State agencies to prop up their private practices, which is a story for another time.

The entire system is a mess, and that is why you need a firm leader … an impartial minister to run the show.

No problem with Holness attending World Cup Final

Too much noise has been centred on Prime Minister Andrew Holness’s trip to the United States to watch the final of World Cup 2026 last Sunday.

The Prime Minister, too, made it so easy for critics of the move by appearing on social media with a post-match assessment that, while it was his choice, he would have been better off allowing someone to get his perspective by way of an interview, instead of volunteering the information on his own steam.

Later, Holness said that he had gone to the match at his own expense, and nothing came from Jamaican State coffers. My position is that if the holder of the office of prime minister wishes to attend the World Cup Final, being held in the region, he should be afforded that privilege, at the country’s expense. It should not be a big deal.  

Well, he also said that he had been invited, officially, by FIFA, which warrants clarification.

When you are officially invited by FIFA, then that organisation is responsible for all your expenses, and FIFA gives you the whole hog. As a special guest, you don’t even need to buy toothpaste if you suspect that breath challenges may expose you during public deliberations. It’s all provided in the welcome package.

Either way, there should be no issue with Holness going to the match. There is a view that once he is leaving the island, he should inform the Jamaican people, officially, and disclose who will be in charge of the Government, or who will act as prime minister, during his absence. I am not sure that that was done, and I heard no announcement to that effect. Even if the prime minister travelled by way of charter on the day of the event, something could have been said. But maybe he was caught up in the euphoria and neglected to get it done, just like the matter that surrounds the filing of his statutory declarations. 

Yes, we mourn, but vigilante justice must stop

The rape and murder of Shani Coke, aged 10, from rural Trelawny has rightly shaken Jamaica and beyond, and has to go down as one of the dastardly acts to have been committed against a minor since the start of 2026.

What in God’s name do some men see in little girls that urge them to become attracted and proceed to do, to them, the kind of things that we don’t even want to imagine?

While we continue to feel disgusted by Shani’s horrific death, the fighting-fire-with-fire approach that was adopted by the people of Tyre village, near Troy, in the parish that produced athletes Usain Bolt, and Veronica Campbell, former prime minister Hugh Lawson Shearer, nursing specialist Dr Camella Thompson, cricketers Neil Hosang, Vincent Doctor and Wilbert Plummer, cricket administrator and former player Phillip Service, among many other giants, was not the way to go.

The killing of the man accused of shortening the child’s life, by a mob, apparently from the same community as the murdered child, was unfortunate. The man, whom police named as Delroy Coke, said to be a cousin of the child, was beaten to death by the mob in an act of reprisal. The community members are still rejoicing that they got their man, but that is a weird way of executing ‘justice.’

One accused mobster has since been detained by the police, and rightly so. This thing of community members rising up and taking the law into their own hands must stop. That man should have been handed over to the police as a suspect, and law enforcers asked to take it from there.

It is not wise for people to play the role of members of the Judiciary. I am not saying that Mr Coke might not be guilty, but a judge or jury ought to have determined that. The free-for-all practice of people deciding who is guilty must stop, because there have been instances in which innocent people have been beaten, shot, or chopped to death because community people determine who is guilty. I know of some.

Sadly, we are living in a society in which it is easy to take that kind of action, whether by law enforcers or other citizens. The police have killed so many innocent people without allowing them to face the courts, so it is no big deal for a crowd to eliminate a man, because ‘a muss him’ commit a crime.

Maybe there ought to be more stringent methods for dealing with people who believe in spreading the disease of wiping out others because they feel it is the best thing to do.

Water, oh where is the water?

Folks, it’s that time of year again, when the speeches get lengthier about water projects that are in the tank, or pipeline, and will be poured out to the Jamaican people in short order.

All that it takes is for drought conditions to persist and you get everything on a platter. In the Corporate Area, for example, the two main suppliers of water to the near 750,000 residents are the Mona Reservoir and the Hermitage Dam. Last time I checked, they were at 70 per cent and 50 per cent capacity, respectively.

The resulting action is regular lockoffs and inconvenience to all, even those who have storage tanks. What happened in sections of the constituency of St Andrew North Western, for example, for six days last week was nothing short of a disgrace. There was not one drop for people in some populated communities over the period and tanks ran dry. There must be a system that will allow for a greater sharing of the most precious commodity.

Oh, well, check the National Water Commission and the ministry with responsibility for water next year, as things will be in place by then to correct all problems. A word of advice: do not hold your breath.