Opposition Says Government Patching Potholes in Health Sector Rather than Addressing Root Causes of Dysfunction
Kingston, Jamaica. September 14, 2024: Opposition Spokesperson on Health and Wellness Dr Alfred Dawes is describing as a “pothole fixing exercise”, the government’s decision to mandate the presence of an ambulance at the Sangster International Airport in response to public outrage while the Norman Manley International Airport was not considered because there was no negative publicity attached to it.
The Ministry of Health and Wellness has also finally reacted to the chronic shortage of ambulances at the Cornwall Regional Hospital after ignoring that and other emergency medical services islandwide. Dr Dawes highlighted the lack of a comprehensive plan to address the widespread issues affecting the health sector results and the hodge podge approach to fixing hotspots as public outcry dictates. “This reactionary approach to bad publicity is seen where islandwide emergency response teams have been gutted and only one of two major airports have been outfitted with an ambulance”, said Dawes.
The Opposition Spokesperson recalld that it took a baby dying before May Pen Hospital received a ventilator and social media coverage before broken elevators were fixed. Additionally, the vector control programs were defunded after the public demand to ramp up fogging subsided.
It is not that the problems and their root causes are not known, it is the manner in which they are being addressed by the Ministry of Health that defies logic. “Why mandate an ambulance for one airport over the other unless simply guided by a PR first approach?” questioned Dawes.
The Opposition reiterates our call that nothing short of a comprehensive reform of the health sector is needed. Knee jerk reactions to complaints in single locations is nothing more than a pothole filling exercise which is significantly less than what is required to improve our health sector.
