Increased efforts to improve health services

More efforts are being made to improve health services across the island. Minister of State with responsibility for primary health-care infrastructure, Luther Buchanan, has indicated that the Ministry of Health is on a mission to improve the primary health care sector.

Buchanan was speaking last week during a tour of three primary health care facilities in St James - Green Pond, Salt Spring and Glendevon health centres - as well as the proposed site for a health centre in Norwood.

"A lot of these facilities have staffing and infrastructure challenges, and so we are working with various agencies, such as the National Health Fund and the Jamaica Social Investment Fund (JSIF), to see how we can prioritise in terms of those with the most urgent issues. The Government also welcomes public/private partnerships as we seek to improve access to health services," the minister said.

Since beginning work with the Health Ministry at the end of January, Minister Buchanan has visited nearly 30 facilities in eight parishes.

"I am really on a fact-finding mission, and in some cases assisting to speed up discussions and negotiations so that we can move forward with improvements to our primary-care facilities, in keeping with one of the main thrusts of the Ministry of Health and the Government," he noted.

Over 100 health centres across the island have been refurbished under the Primary Health Care Infrastructure Renewal Programme, and projects are being scoped to improve others.