The Government, through the Ministry of Health and Wellness, has spent $18 million to acquire 200 new hospital reclining chairs, which will soon be distributed among hospitals across the island. The first batch of chairs was sent off on Tuesday (October 22), from the Ministry’s storage facility in Kingston. Minister of Health and Wellness, Dr. Christopher Tufton, said the objective is to reduce overcrowding in Accident and Emergency Departments, and to offer more comfort to patients while they wait to be admitted on wards as the chairs can be unfolded and used as a substitute for a
hospital bed.
Treatment supplies can also be connected to the chairs for patients to be treated while they wait. “This will be seen as a sort of interim measure that allows patients to wait, but wait in relative comfort while they are given initial treatment until they can be transferred to a hospital bed,” Dr. Tufton said. He also noted that the beds will be helpful during this season with more persons seeking treatment for the flu and dengue, which oftentimes results in overcrowding in some hospitals. Dr. Tufton said the Ministry decided to purchase new hospital reclining chairs, because they are more resourceful than normal hospital beds.
“Part of the challenge with replacing more beds, is that if you put more beds in hospitals, you also have to build more buildings to accommodate the beds, and so, we
have to, in the interim, while we plan to build out our hospitals, find a way to accommodate more people,” he said.
The chairs were sourced by Jamaica Hospital Supplies.
This money could beasily spent more wisely. In uk, you have chairs which can accommodate more people. These can only accommodate one person at a time, unless, the government expect these to acts as beds.
When was the last time a major hospital was built in Jamaica? We need more clinics across the island staffed with Nurse Practitioners. Does Jamaica have the equivalent of Physician Assistants? Our country should be looking at increasing healthcare providers and stop the hemorrhaging of our Nurses who are leaving the country in droves. We don’t need chairs, we need a lot more critical care professionals!
I think I heard on the radio that two new hospitals were being built. Should be completed in 18-24 months