Dr. Winston Dawes, Past President of the Medical Association of Jamaica - Gleaner file photo
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Dr. Winston Dawes
Dr. Winston Dawes, Past President of the Medical Association of Jamaica, believes poor planning by the Ministry of Health has led to some young qualified doctors, assigned to hospitals and health clinics, being unemployed after their contracts ended on June 30.
Dr. Dawes says a system should have been in place since March to ensure that new contracts would be ready for July 1.
It has been reported that some young doctors have also been terminated due to budgetary constraints caused by COVID-19.
The Ministry of Health has said there is no fiscal restriction in filling the posts established within Regional Health Authorities.
It said it understands there are delays at some facilities in the contracting of doctors due to administrative arrangements that are to be finalised before contracts can be issued.
But speaking Monday on the Morning Agenda on Power 106, Dr. Dawes said the contract system needs to be overhauled.
He argued that there have been issues with this regime long before COVID-19, where interviews were being held for doctors going to new hospitals in January when they should have started on January 1 or similarly, them being interviewed in July when they should have begun work on July 1.
"This pandemic has been impacting the world since March and they should have looked at the budget, looked at the needs and see how best they can fit it in. Had we had a massive number of COVID patients, the present staff would have bee overwhelmed, and so we've got to plan," he contended.
Dr. Dawes added that there is no logic to the Ministry of Health's explanation that budgetary constraints is not an issue in the hiring of doctors.
"If there's no fiscal problem and you know what's gonna happen on the 1st of July, then they should have been employed," he said, pointing out that Cuban doctors and nurses were employed in Jamaica just a few months ago.
Dr. Dawes, who is also a member of the Medical Council of Jamaica, is concerned that the lack of employment will push young doctors into private practice without adequate training, which could have serious repercussions for the population.
"One of the things that where we were lucky is that when we were growing up as doctors, we were mentored. Our consultants there made sure we made safe decisions, we had to defend our decisions, before they encouraged us to go out," he recalled.
Dr. Dawes has appealed to the Ministry of Health to include medical staff in the decision making process to allow for the development of effective policies.
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