Michael Abrahams | Calling out Dr Tufton

The management of our health sector under the watch of Minister of Health and Wellness, Dr Christopher Tufton, is cause for concern. For starters, the auditor general has repeatedly flagged the Ministry of Health and Wellness (MOHW) for awarding contracts without putting them out to tender, not following procurement procedures, and not accounting for large sums of money.

For example, according to a news report, during the fiscal year 2017 to 2018, over $7 million worth of computer equipment went missing. Also, there was no evidence of procurement processes for almost $18 million that was spent, and no evidence of the permanent secretary’s approval of the relevant contracts. From 2018 to 2019, US$ $288,900 (over J$35 million) was spent on consulting services for nine months, with no competitive process or advertisement.

In 2022, the auditor general detected several anomalies in how funds allocated to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic were spent by the ministry and also cited the entity for failing to abide by the Financial Administration and Audit Act. Among other things, it was discovered that $337 million was paid to seven hotels and guest houses to provide quarantine accommodations, but only one of them was contracted formally. Also, $124 million was also paid to eight suppliers for infrastructural works, without any contracts. It was also reported that $2 million was spent on television sets and tablets for which there was no indication of their relevance to the ministry’s COVID-19 response initiatives.

AROUSED SUSPICION

Contracts reportedly awarded to persons associated with Dr Tufton have also aroused suspicion. In 2020, he was taken to task over contracts that were awarded to Market Me, a company run by someone who was allegedly closely associated with him, for Jamaica Moves, a healthy-lifestyle programme. It was revealed that the MOHW awarded several contracts totalling more than $80 million to the company, which was the only one considered for the job.

More recently, it was reported that the contract for storing the bodies of patients who die at the Kingston Public Hospital (KPH) has been awarded to Archer’s Funeral Home in Spanish Town, St Catherine. The funeral home is run by Michael Archer, a Jamaica Labour Party councillor in the Red Hills division of the St Catherine West Central constituency, of which Dr Tufton is the member of parliament. So, grieving family members, many of whom are impoverished, must trek 18 miles away from KPH to another parish to retrieve the remains of their loved ones, when, in the past, some of them could have walked to a funeral home in the vicinity of the hospital. This is a cruel act and, as with the Market Me scenario, the optics are not good, and one would not be unreasonable to wonder if alleged cronyism is at play in both instances.

There is also a credibility issue. In 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic, Tufton was seen in a video telling a woman that four billion people had taken the AstraZeneca vaccine, none of them had died, and that the only people who were going to the hospital and dying were those who did not take the vaccine. His statement was laced with fallacies. Way less than four billion people had taken the AstraZeneca vaccine, people had died from adverse effects of it, and some who were hospitalised and died had been vaccinated.

In July 2022, nine newborn babies died from infections during a bacterial outbreak at the Victoria Jubilee Hospital (VJH). However, the public was unaware of the issue until late October that year when a media house broke the story. Dr Tufton was taken to task and accused of presiding over a cover-up of the situation and withholding information about it from the public. He refuted the accusations, claiming he first became aware of the crisis “towards the end of August”. However, in Parliament, he was unwilling to reiterate his defence, as, when Opposition Leader Mark Golding asked him twice to confirm that he was informed in August, he did not answer the question.

MISMANAGEMENT

The mismanagement of the renovation of the Cornwall Regional Hospital is another issue. It began as a $2-billion redevelopment project over seven years ago, slated for completion in 2020. The budget has skyrocketed to over $21 billion and the project has not been completed. The radiological services in the public health sector are woefully inadequate. The Bustamante Hospital for Children, the only children’s hospital in the country, remains without a CT or MRI machine. KPH, the country’s largest public hospital, has not had a functioning MRI unit for years and does not have an emergency ultrasound service. Embarrassingly, the last US travel advisory for Jamaica urges American citizens to reconsider visiting our country because of not only crime, but also unsatisfactory medical services

Today, as Tufton is being grilled about the country’s suboptimal ventilator availability, a set of alarming data has been made public. Jamaica’s maternal mortality rate, when last checked in 2022, was one of the country’s highest. There were 49 maternal deaths recorded that year, pushing our maternal mortality rate to 156.7 (measured as deaths per 100,000 live births). So, according to the data provided by the MOHW, a pregnant or recently delivered woman in Jamaica is more likely to die today than in the 1980s, when our rate was between 110 and 116.

The apparent mismanagement of funds and the questionable awarding of contracts involving enormous amounts of money, in the face of an unacceptably high maternal mortality rate and other deficiencies in the health sector, is scandalous. The permanent secretary and his team at the MOHW and chairpersons and members of the regional health boards have a lot of explaining to do. There must be accountability. Ultimately, however, the minister of health and wellness is in charge. If he takes credit for the ministry’s successes, he must also accept responsibility for its shortcomings and failures, and there are too many. In my opinion, his position as manager of our health sector has become untenable.

Michael Abrahams is an obstetrician and gynaecologist, social commentator and human-rights advocate. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and michabe_1999@hotmail.com, or follow him on X , formerly Twitter, @mikeyabrahams.