Jamaica could be courting public health disaster – Dr Guy
‘...The people of Montego Bay and all of western Jamaica will continue to suffer the indignity of an overcrowded A&E (accident and emergency) waiting area and be subjected to significantly reduced medical care. This situation places an additional burden and stress on the staff, who are becoming increasingly frustrated and indifferent to their surroundings.’
JAMAICA COULD be courting a public health disaster by allowing its enviable childhood immunisation record which has traditionally ranked in the high 90 per cent for diseases such as measles, mumps, rubella, tetanus, diphtheria and whooping cough to slip, as a result of the diversion of public health nurses to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, and the shortage of vaccines, according to Opposition Spokesman on Health and Wellness, Dr Morais Guy.
OUTBREAKS OF VACCINE-PREVENTABLE DISEASES
Making his contribution to the 2022 Sectoral Debate on Tuesday, the member of parliament for St Mary Central warned that many Jamaican children have missed out on some of these critical vaccinations – a troubling fact, in light of concerns raised by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF).
According to Dr Guy, both organisations have reported a 79 per cent increase in measles infections in only the first two months of this year, compared to the corresponding period for 2021, and further warning that conditions are ripe for serious outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases. In light of this, he charged the Government to take steps to ensure that the proper logistics arrangements are in place to guarantee adequate supplies of all childhood vaccinations. It is especially important that the Government moves to address this issue, given disruptions in the global supply chains, which resulted in a recent shortage of BCG (Bacille Calmette-Guérin) vaccines which are used to treat tuberculosis.
Dr Guy also turned the spotlight on the fate of victims of prostate cancer – the most common cancer in Jamaica, declaring that despite this, there is still no facility at state-run health institutions for screening a patient who wants to have the digital rectal examination and the PSA blood test done. He pointed out that most of the PSA tests performed in the public sector are primarily a result of patients undergoing cancer treatment diagnosed years before, which now require an assessment of the treatment intervention.
“In fact, there are not many labs in the government hospitals that do a PSA and when they are sent to regional labs from the local hospitals, the turnaround time is usually about three months,” he lamented.
The St Mary Central MP commended Minister of Health and Wellness Dr Christopher Tufton for tabling the Primary Health Care Reform 2021-2030, which speaks to the need to establish these types of preventative programmes, but questioned whether or not it would die a natural death, like so many other well-intentioned documents.
“Many reviews of the primary health sector have been conducted, such as the 1978 Primary Care Perspective, the 2004 Goffe/McCarthy Review and the new Primary Health Care model. And, if one is to go back to the 2004 review, we would discover that many of those recommendations have not been implemented.
“We are a country of reviews and no implementation. Regarding reviews, where is the study of the Regional Health Authorities done in 2007-2008? What has happened to those recommendations, and when will these be acted upon? What also of the Task Force Review commissioned by then Minister Rudyard Spencer?” he asked.
Working conditions at the Kingston Public Hospital (KPH), the largest trauma hospital in the English-speaking Caribbean, as well as the state of affairs at the Cornwall Regional Hospital in western Jamaica also caught Dr Guy’s attention, as he chastised Minister Tufton for failing to mention the KPH even once, in his sectoral presentation.
POOR WORKING CONDITIONS AT KPH
“It cannot be that KPH, which deals with any and all referrals from across the entire island, is allowed to continue rudimentary in its present state. The conditions, in many instances, are rundown. The facilities for X-rays are compromised, and the persistent overcrowding does not lend itself to proper medical management despite the herculean efforts of the medical and nursing staff.
“KPH is a national institution and its 246 years of operation as the people’s hospital needs improvement,” he argued.
Conditions at the Cornwall Hospital are so bad, the staff and patients alike are being badly affected, according to Dr Guy.
“While we wait another 31 months, the people of Montego Bay and all of western Jamaica will continue to suffer the indignity of an overcrowded A&E (accident and emergency) waiting area and be subjected to significantly reduced medical care. This situation places an additional burden and stress on the staff, who are becoming increasingly frustrated and indifferent to their surroundings.”