DOCS WELL AGAIN

WESTERN BUREAU:

The Holness administration appeared to have bought time after a daylong sickout and gruelling late-night talks over a contracts dispute that threatened to make more than 140 junior doctors jobless.

The healthcare system ground to a halt on Thursday as a sickout by 548 junior doctors set off alarm bells at hospitals, with only emergency cases being seen. They got 1/5th of their demands, The Gleaner understands.

“The meetings today were fruitful, with a better understanding of the issues on both sides,” Health Minister Christopher Tufton told The Gleaner on Thursday night.

“The short-term contract issues were sorted out, and both sides agreed to continuing talking on other issues.”

In a press statement just before press time, the MOH said normal operations would resume at health facilities islandwide effective 8 a.m. today.

The decision was reached following a meeting of senior executives of the health ministry and members of the Jamaica Medical Doctors’ Association (JMDA) over Thursday’s high rate of absenteeism.

Their action saw senior medical officers and technocrats in some of the country’s largest medical facilities admitting that they could not guarantee continued services owing to the exhaustion of consultants.

“The consultants alone cannot carry the full magnitude of service. If in the next 48 hours, the situation has not been resolved, I don’t know what we are going to do,” senior medical officer at Mandeville Regional, Dr Everton McIntosh, told The Gleaner.

Only 488 doctors of the 1,036 turned up for work on Thursday, while the others fought for confirmation of pre-negotiated heads of agreement and an end to fixed-term contracts devoid of benefits.

Tagging the six-month contracts exploitative, JMDA President Dr Mindi Fitz-Henley said it was a tactic to bypass the negotiating table. She argued that they would only accept two- to three-year contracts.

In the meantime, their actions on the day recognised internationally as Doctor’s Day resulted in the cancellation of the clinics and non-emergency services and elective surgeries at the St Ann’s Regional Hospital.

Ninety-eight of the 108 doctors who generally serve patients at the St Ann’s Bay facility stayed away, the hospital’s chief executive officer, Dennis Morgan, told The Gleaner, noting that only 10 consultants remained on the job.

“It is not the coverage to the extent which we normally provide on a daily basis to our patients, but nonetheless, given the situation, we are managing and we will take it day by day,” he added.

In the western region, which includes Cornwall Regional Hospital, only 66 of the 245 doctors were absent.

But that offered no solace to patients who were forced to leave frustrated.

That included a 75-year-old woman, who gave her name only as Ms Duncan.

“We waited for six hours, and at 12:30, I got to go to the pharmacy, but we are still here as we did not get through. My husband is at the pharmacy now, but they put him off till November, and he is in pain,” she lamented.

Medical students were also unable to complete their training regimen because of the cancellation of clinical rotations.

Mahesh Dayyala, a medical student from the All American Institute of Medical Sciences in Black River, St Elizabeth, said that the sickout severely restricted operations at CRH, where he is an intern.

“It is really hard as I was planning to work here in Jamaica, but I am having second thoughts now,” said Dayyala.

Optimistic that progress was being made between his ministry and the junior doctors, Tufton said the regional health authorities would make adjustments to the contracts policy.

Other issues surrounding employment would be resolved in good faith later, he said.

“Up to this time, we have demonstrated mutual respect, and that is what is required to come to a resolution,” he said.

janet.silvera@gleanerjm.com