Jamaica recruiting health professionals from Cuba, Africa amid staffing shortages

The Government is turning to Cuba and Africa for emergency medical reinforcements as chronic staffing shortages continue to push the public health sector to its limits.

Health and Wellness Minister Dr Christopher Tufton told Wednesday’s Post Cabinet Media Briefing that his ministry would be recruiting hundreds of medical professionals from Cuba and Nigeria in addition to those already here from Ghana.

“Over the next three years, the ministry will recruit some 300 specialist nurses, doctors and other health professionals to work in the Jamaican public health system,” he said.

“In the case of Nigeria, the new agreement builds on health cooperation already under way. Previously, we had welcomed four nursing specialist educators under the Nigerian Technical Aid Corps Programme, who continue to contribute to specialist training and service delivery in the public health system.”

Tufton also explained how the 43 Ghanaian nurses who came in last month have been deployed across Jamaica’s health sector.

“The Western Regional Health Authority (WRHA), which manages health facilities in St James, Westmoreland, Trelawny and Hanover, has received 18 of the specialist nurses,” he said.

“The South East Regional Health Authority (SERHA), which oversees Kingston and St Andrew, St Thomas and St Catherine, has 13 nurses assigned. NERHA (North East Regional Health Authority, which includes St Ann, St Mary and Portland) has received two; and the Southern Region (Clarendon, Manchester and St Elizabeth) six. Four of the 43 have been deployed to the University Hospital of the West Indies.”

The nurses are specialists in various areas, including Critical Care, Paediatrics, Operating Theatre, Nurse/Midwife, Emergency, Oncology, and Mental Health/Psychiatric and are among the first cohort of a targeted 400 healthcare workers expected from Ghana under the four-year agreement between both countries.

Scores of Cuban health professionals left Jamaica starting in March after the Government discontinued its 50-year-old bilateral medical cooperation programme with Cuba. But Tufton explained that 157 doctors and nurses have since returned to the island.

“The largest complement, 69 professionals, has been assigned to South East Regional Health Authority, with 26 deployed to Southern Regional Health Authority and 28 to the Western Regional Health Authority,” the health minister revealed.

“An additional 25 professionals have been assigned to the University Hospital of the West Indies, with the remaining nine engaged at the Ministry of Health and Wellness and the North East Regional Health Authority. This 157 is in addition to the 43 other Cuban medical professionals who had remained in country and brings the total cadre of Cuban medical professionals in the public health service to 200.”

The Cuban health professionals are now engaged through direct individual contracts and not through the Cuban government.

- Karen Madden

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