Good day to you all,
The dismal health sector audits have now been released and clearly shows the crisis in Jamaican public health care. I wish to shed some light on a leading factor that caused this crisis.
Some time ago the public health system featured too few doctors who worked long hours/overtime.This was burdensome and some doctors suffered from stress and burnout. Thus Dr.Fenton had a very well intentioned idea to correct this and as such he implemented a shift system to rotate the health workers.
The fact is this was really a disguise for the real reason was spending cuts ordered by the IMF.Many health workers earned less as a result and there was a lack of coverage in the hospitals.What price do we put on a life?Does the Minister thinks paying overtime is too much so he sanctioned the spending cuts? Indeed the budgets cuts were necessary but I put it to you that nothing is more important than one’s health because it impacts all other human’s pursuits.
There are several areas that could’ve been cut and look no further than the Jamaica Fire Brigade. Anybody who plays dominoes will tell you a Jamaican Fireman will beat you 6 love religiously and they do very well in domino competitions. These firemen earn millions upon millions in Overtime payments and we haven’t heard of 10 cases when there was a fire during that “earning OT period”
They should’ve put the JFB on a shift system so that there would still be adequate coverage and if there is a need for additional resources THEN you call them into report and pay OT. Clearly this is infinitely better than having a bunch of guys playing dominoes and earning OT daily for standby “work” when there is often no incident! I value and rate highly the work of Firemen so I am not downplaying their importance.
Please rectify in your own conscience what would be your choice between paying OT to health workers (who are working always around the clock) and Firemen sitting around playing dominoes waiting for a fire that often never comes.
Mi say a today mi a talk to one a mi fren from school an him a tell me say him neighba cudden breathe an dem rush go a Spain hospital and dem nuh have nuh oxygen an him DEAD! A mean foreign hawd tuh in different ways but dem ago try save yuh life jah know star.