Some doctors at May Pen Hospital on sickout

Some doctors at the May Pen Hospital in Clarendon are now staging a sickout, leaving the accident and emergency department understaffed.

The hospital's acting chief executive officer, Eugena Clarke-James, says she is unable to say how many doctors have called in sick.

She told The Gleaner that the hospital is currently trying to source additional staff to support operations at the department.

"In terms of patients coming in to accident and emergency, we would not have that adequate staffing, so we are still doing our triaging and assessment so we can deal with urgent cases. We are in the process of seeing how best we can get additional staff to come in," she said.

"But we are providing coverage through our senior officers for emergency cases at this time, so our area is not left unmanned because we have the support of our senior staff, which I am happy about," she added. 

Meanwhile, St Andrade Sinclair, the acting regional director of the Western Regional Health Authority, says that he is cautiously watching for any possible strike action by doctors in western Jamaica in light of the lack of employment for 147 doctors in the health sector.

“We have been hearing the little ruffles, but I have not seen anything like that so far, or heard of anything like that. I am keeping my ears on the ground and being very prepared, and all my officers are prepared and we are wary. Maybe it is still too early, but I have not seen or heard of anything yet,” Sinclair told The Gleaner on Thursday morning.

Reports of possible industrial action by doctors come in the wake of talks between the Government and the Jamaica Medical Doctors Association between Tuesday and Wednesday.

The discussions were held in an effort to find employment for the 147 doctors whose contracts expire today.

The talks were also held to look at individual cases where doctors were offered six-month and one-year contracts, in an effort to ascertain if there are anomalies relating to the heads of agreement and take remedial actions.

- Olivia Brown and Christopher Thomas

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