Oversubscribed, understaffed

WESTERN BUREAU:

Despite the Ministry of Health and Wellness’ recently publicised claim that Jamaica’s doctor internship programme is currently oversubscribed, questions and doubts still remain about whether there are enough interns now in the systems to service the nation’s hospitals.

A source at the University Hospital of the West Indies (UHWI), who asked to be called David to maintain his anonymity for fear of discrimination, said the St Andrew-based facility is currently operating with 18 fewer interns than were hired last year, at a time when interns are needed to manage the hospital’s daily operations.

“As we speak today, as of July of this year, UHWI is short of interns. There are days that my team and many other teams here do not have interns, and for my service in particular, we have capacity for two to three interns, but there is only one, and there are days when we have none on service,” David told The Sunday Gleaner.

“UHWI knows they had 39 posts, and previously they employed up to 53 interns up to last year. There were 20 persons who graduated from UHWI’s medical school, and that is not enough to fully staff the hospitals across the island, and right now UHWI is operating 18 interns short,” David added. “You have medical sub-specialities at UHWI, and some of those sub-specialities do not have any interns. You have at least 18 interns out there who could have been at UHWI.”

The concern about interns’ availability for Jamaica’s hospitals comes after an article published in The Gleaner on September 22 where at least 30 doctors who were trained in China over a six-year period complained that they applied for internships at several medical facilities across the island after graduating in April this year, only to receive rejection letters in August, one month past the expected response deadline.

The doctors also alleged that they were told during a meeting on July 21 this year that the health ministry would be enforcing certain protocols, such as exclusion of candidates from institutions not accredited by the Caribbean Accreditation Authority for Education in Medicine and Other Health Professions (CAAM-HP) – a change that they insisted they were not told about during their applications.

In a subsequent media release from the health ministry, Dr Jacqueline Bisasor-McKenzie, chief medical officer for Jamaica, said the internship programme was full as 500 internship applications were received this year, and that over 250 interns have been placed on the programme over the past three years.

However, David took note of Health Minister Dr Christopher Tufton’s declaration during a Jamaica Labour Party mass rally on August 10, where he said 3,000 new posts have been established in the health sector “to put more doctors and nurses in our hospitals”.

“Minister Tufton advertised that 3,000 more health sector jobs were created, yet categories of staff at UHWI are being cut. There are interns I know right now who are working at Kingston Public Hospital, Spanish Town Hospital, and Mandeville Regional Hospital, who did not get a job at UHWI when they applied and did interviews, and they had to go out to get jobs elsewhere. You cannot say we have too many interns when UHWI is short-staffed,” David argued.

Data received by The Sunday Gleaner indicates that there are currently 24 interns at the Savanna-la-Mar Public Hospital in Westmoreland, 36 interns at the Cornwall Regional Hospital in St James, two interns at the St James Type V Clinic in Montego Bay, and one intern at the Noel Holmes Hospital’s x-ray department in Hanover.

Senior house officers present

Concerning the Falmouth Public Hospital in Trelawny, there are no doctor-interns there at present. However, it is understood that there are three senior house officers, who are of a higher level than interns, currently on rotation across Trelawny’s health centres.

Senior house officers are typically required to do a year of service before advancing to become medical officers.

At the Mandeville Regional Hospital in Manchester, there are 13 medical interns and eight locum interns (interns who studied overseas), plus four observers of medical procedures.

It was not ascertained whether these numbers are sufficient for what is required at the various facilities.

In the meantime, The Sunday Gleaner received correspondence from Bisasor-McKenzie through the health ministry’s director of public relations and communications Stephen Davidson, indicating that the ministry is reviewing the internship numbers for further action to be taken.

“We are presently reviewing our numbers with a view to increasing the numbers according to the needs of the regional health authorities, and at the same time not compromising the quality of the internship programme based on the level of supervision and the presence of the resources required,” said Bisasor-McKenzie, through Davidson.

christopher.thomas@gleanerjm.com