Updated | Jamaica signs Letter of Intent with Philippines aimed at filling healthcare staffing gaps

As Jamaica grapples with growing health challenges amid increasing migration, the Government has signed a Letter of Intent with the Philippines to collaborate on the training, recruitment and clinical rotation of healthcare professionals.

Minister of Health, Dr Christopher Tufton, made the revelation during the Global Health Initiative launch at the University of the West Indies' Western Jamaica Campus in Montego Bay, St James, on Tuesday night.

The Philippines is one of the largest trainers of healthcare workers in the world.

"I signed a Letter of Intent with the Minister of Health Philippines in Switzerland at the World Health Assembly. We are now negotiating an MOU to pursue a bilateral agreement around health worker training, faculty exchange and recruitment of health workers that are not available locally," said Tufton.

“We are going to exchange faculty to increase the ratio of faculty to student. Faculty from the Philippines are willing to come here or utilise technology to increase the cadre. And thirdly, we're going to recruit, hire Filipino workers, healthcare workers to come so that when we build our hospitals, we don't have an issue as we do now,” he told the gathering.

A similar arrangement has been made with Cuba, which Jamaica has had longstanding bilateral arrangements with. “We have over 300 Cubans in our system now, mostly nurses,” said Dr Tufton.

An agreement was also signed with Nigeria three months ago, he shared, and there are discussions with India.

According to the health minister, he would prefer universities such as the UWI to lead these types of initiatives.

He said the country has no choice but to embrace the UWI initiative as a matter of survival.

- Janet Silvera

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