Medical intern shortage and long shifts strain Jamaica's public hospitals, JMDA warns

The Jamaica Medical Doctors Association (JMDA) has warned that a deepening shortage of medical interns is placing unsustainable pressure on the public health system, with trainees facing punishing hours and poor working conditions.

Interns across Jamaica are on strike over workload and living arrangements on hospital compounds. The JMDA is supporting the industrial action. Association president Dr Renee Bajereau said some trainees are rostered for 24 to 32 consecutive hours on alternate days, while reports of 56-hour stretches have also emerged. Those patterns are said to be most common at Spanish Town Hospital, May Pen Hospital, Mandeville Regional Hospital, Savanna-la-Mar Public Hospital, St Ann's Bay Hospital, and the University Hospital of the West Indies.

Because interns must remain on site as the first point of contact during emergencies, Dr Bajereau said the dispute centres on both hours and the requirement to stay on compound. She argued that exhaustion is eroding the clinical training internship is meant to provide. "If you have a doctor that's burnt out and tired, remember the purpose of internship is really to hone your clinical skill," she said, adding that fatigue affects judgment, procedural skills, and emergency response.

Dr Bajereau said current trainees—many nearing completion in June or July—are protesting largely for future cohorts. The JMDA is calling for additional internship posts and temporary staffing to ease the burden, warning that without urgent change, incoming interns will face the same conditions. She cited road incidents linked to fatigue, including four accidents and one near miss she had heard of in the recent batch, and recalled her own near miss during internship.

Addressing the public, she asked for patience: "Jamaica, we love you. And we're asking you to have patience with us. And as we fight for you and fight for the dignity of your care, we ask that you understand what the measures that we have had to take."

Health and Wellness Minister Dr Christopher Tufton has directed regional health authorities and UHWI to act immediately on complaints about interns' working and living conditions. Hospitals must inspect accommodation within 72 hours and carry out urgent repairs where safety, structural, or sanitary problems are found. Supervisors are to review duty rosters, human resources units must assess staffing gaps within five working days, and additional mental health support will be offered.

The ministry said 232 medical interns are expected to be in post by 1 July, with further placements after upcoming examination results. A revised internship placement framework is to go to cabinet for review. Dr Tufton said accountability must extend beyond policy to hospital managers and regional leaders, noting that at UHWI—where nurses had recently withdrawn services—management inspections found more than 50 beds available to house patients.