Recruitment of overseas nurses inevitable, says Tufton
Published:Monday | September 19, 2022 | 12:09 AM
WESTERN BUREAU:
Health Minister Dr Christopher Tufton says that despite the recurring backlash against the recruitment of overseas nurses, the move is necessary to fill key vacancies, including those with operating theatre expertise.
Addressing Friday’s contract-signing ceremony between the Western Regional Health Authority and several private medical facilities for 590 backlogged elective surgeries in western Jamaica, Tufton said that simply upgrading all operating theatres in Jamaica’s hospitals would be meaningless if the personnel were not there to manage them.
“The truth is, if we fix all the operating theatres and they work perfectly, we would increase the numbers of input up to the point where we have the personnel, the surgeons, and the operating theatre nurses to manage the time that is available for the theatre to be used, even on a 24-hour cycle.
“The bottleneck there is a lack of operating theatre nurses, and therefore we can do so much and no more, even with perfect conditions,” Tufton added.
The health minister said that the Government would seek to close the gaps in surgical team personnel and attract talent in diaspora markets for short-term stints. Tufton called operating theatre nurses “the weakest link” in labour supply.
In July this year, doctors and nurses dismissed as impractical plans announced by the Ministry of Health to hire temporary healthcare workers from the diaspora to help clear the backlog of 6,000 elective surgeries.
Those surgeries, which include approximately 2,000 hernia procedures, were delayed from as far back as March 2020 because of mounting COVID-19 cases, which took priority during the height of the pandemic.
But in addressing the criticism Friday, Tufton contended that the biggest priority should be given to delivering optimal patient care regardless of the methods used to do so.
“My view is that we have to find the optimal arrangement, given our objective of bringing relief to patients, and that optimal arrangement means all hands on deck despite the fact that we may offend some people. That is not the intention because at the end of the day, it is not about us, but it is about the people we are serving,” said Tufton.
The health minister also addressed reports about the lack of doctors and other personnel at Accident and Emergency wards and the reported lengthy wait times for patients.
“I think we need to spend more time to explain how Accident and Emergency works because sometimes there is an expectation that once you arrive, you must get through. That is unlikely to happen unless you are the most urgent case, and an urgent-care facility prioritises people based on urgency,” Tufton told the meeting.
Tufton urged patients to trust the process and prudence of clinicians who assess cases and organise treatment according to priority.