Tufton ready to debate healthcare improvement with critics
Published:Saturday | November 4, 2023 | 12:07 AMChristopher Thomas/Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
HEALTH MINISTER Dr Christopher Tufton has clapped back at criticisms of the Government’s handling of Jamaica’s healthcare system. He declared that those who disparage the efforts of the Holness administration to revamp the health sector are only seeking to magnify the negative side of the issue.
During his keynote address at Thursday’s official launch of the Ministry of Health’s Compassionate Care programme for the Cambridge Health Centre in Cambridge, St James, Tufton challenged anyone to publicly debate him on the Jamaica Labour Party’s (JLP) efforts to reform healthcare in Jamaica.
“I know we have our challenges in public health, but if you really take the time to assess what the administration has done under Andrew Holness and his team as it relates to healthcare, we have been on a path of renewal and reform. I challenge anybody to counter that narrative, and I will enter the public square, stand on the highest mountain, and debate and discuss and demonstrate why the people of Jamaica are better off today, will be better off tomorrow and the months and years to come, because of what this administration has done and is doing for health care,” said a strident Tufton.
“When we took out 12 pages of ads in The Gleaner some weeks ago, searching to hire over 723 doctors, I want to know which other idea could be placed on the table that can counter or better that without it being perceived as almost unrealistic, as it is a game-changer. When we decided to spend US$15 million to digitise health centres and hospitals, which we will see rolling out soon so patient records can now be stored digitally and can be accessed in real time, that is transformational,” he challenged.
“Anybody who doesn’t appreciate that it is transformational, they are not really looking to find the positives in what is happening in our society and community,” Tufton added.
His declaration comes four days after Opposition Leader Mark Golding called for a complete overhaul of Jamaica’s healthcare system, including tackling of issues such as wait-times at health facilities, lack of bedspaces, and customer service problems.
Steadfast work on hospitals
While addressing a People’s National Party [PNP] meeting in St James on Sunday, Golding criticised the length of time it has taken for the ongoing restoration work at the Cornwall Regional Hospital [CRH] in St James to be finished since work began there in 2017, as well as the constant increase of the repair work’s cost from an initial $2 billion in March 2018 to $14.5 billion at present.
But in his address on Thursday, while acknowledging that the CRH’s completion has been a longstanding complaint for residents in western Jamaica, Tufton argued that the work being done at the Type A hospital and the neighbouring Western Children and Adolescent Hospital should indicate that steadfast work is being done to finish those projects, along with other hospitals across the country.
“I admit it is a ‘pain point’ for the public, but if you take the time to visit the new eight-floor Western Children and Adolescent Hospital, and you see the final phase now being realised at CRH, where it will be the highest concentration of hospital beds in the Caribbean, over 700 beds, and where there will be more operating theatres, more doctors, more consultants, and digitisation [of hospital records], it is transformational, it is not a ‘pitch-patch’ type of work. I could say the same for Spanish Town Hospital, where this year we’ll break ground for a six-storey building, and for The University Hospital of the West Indies, where the plans have been drawn up and ready for six floors,” said Tufton.
“I say to those who are cynical and critical, it’s fine, because ideas must contend, but we must introduce some realism into those ideas as we debate them, because people won’t take us seriously if we oversell it or indeed become the prophet of doom and gloom. Healthcare has to be cautiously debated and carefully argued, because to politicise people’s lives is not such a good thing, because it’s very emotional,” Tufton said.