Opposition Calls on the Ministry of Health to Declare a State of Healthcare Emergency in Jamaica
Kingston, Jamaica. August 16, 2024: Opposition Spokesperson on Health and Wellness, Dr Alfred Dawes, is urging the Ministry of Health to be transparent and forthcoming about the state of healthcare in Jamaica. This call comes in light of the University Hospital of the West Indies (UHWI) ceasing transfers from all other hospitals and private health facilities. This unprecedented decision confirms what every unbiased user and worker in the public health system has been saying for months: the health sector is in a state of crisis.
With only three major hospitals serving the entire island—Cornwall Regional Hospital (CRH), the University Hospital of the West Indies (UHWI), and Kingston Public Hospital (KPH)—any disruption of services in one hospital has a domino effect on the others. Additionally, the less specialised, mostly rural hospitals have fewer options available for transferring critically ill patients, leading to higher morbidity and death rates in those facilities.
CRH has been practically out of commission for the last eight years, and now, with UHWI no longer receiving patients, the already overwhelmed KPH must shoulder the burden of the other two nonfunctional hospitals. By any measure, this constitutes a state of emergency in the healthcare system, both public and private.
“What we are witnessing today is the worst state our health sector has been in since Cornwall Regional Hospital was built over fifty years ago,” said Dr. Alfred Dawes, the Opposition Spokesperson on Health and Wellness. “This generation has never experienced a situation where the twenty lower-level hospitals have only one Type A hospital to send their sickest patients.”
“God forbid any major accidents or earthquakes should occur, as every receiving hospital would be instantly overwhelmed,” he continued.
Dr. Dawes is calling on the Ministry of Health to immediately address the nation on the true state of the public health system and to outline the immediate and long-term measures being taken to minimise the loss of lives in patients who cannot be transferred to KPH.
“I urge all Jamaicans to be extremely cautious as you go about your daily lives because if emergency care is needed, it will most likely not be at the usual standard, leading to greater risks to your lives,” he warned. “We can only pray that things return to some semblance of normality, given the gravity of the situation.”
