Dawes insists number of working ventilators far lower than reported

By Prince Moore/Halshane Burke  

   

Opposition Spokesperson on Health Dr. Alfred Dawes is insisting that the number of working ventilators in the healthcare system is far below the figure put out by the Health Minister.

 

Health Minister Dr. Christopher Tufton had indicated that there are approximately 100 ventilators in use in the public healthcare system.

 

But Dr. Dawes holds a different view.

 

He says a number of the ventilators in the public healthcare system are in need of repair "or they have been cannibalised to take parts from them to repair other ventilators".

 

"Now, the numbers have changed so much that I don't know if by the time an audit is done, we would have seen more ventilators being commissioned because there are some of them in boxes. But what can be said is that the staff in the hospitals who are working, they know exactly how many ventilators are working today, June 19th. And I can tell you that at KPH, it is less than 10. At Cornwall [Regional Hospital], it is less than 10. And those are the two biggest hospitals in Jamaica," Dr. Dawes said Wednesday on Radio Jamaica's Beyond the Headlines.

 

The opposition spokeman wants a more robust approach from the government to fix the systemic issues affecting the health sector.

 

He said the announced $11 billion in capital projects for the sector will not address the real issues plaguing it. 

 

"If you put that funding into fixing the systemic gaps, it makes a big difference in terms of the delivery of care. And that is what we're saying. And we have been saying, and people who are on the ground in the hospitals and clinics have been saying for the longest time, fix the problems that we have now, rather than saying that you're going to outsource," he maintained.  

 

Dr. Dawes contended that the money would have been better spent on a proper maintenance programme and the country would have far more functioning medical equipment. 

 

"All of those donated ventilators from the first EU donation with the PROMAC programme, to the second EU, PSOJ and private citizens donation during COVID, you would have the majority of those ventilators up and running. You would have X-ray units, ultrasounds, CT scans in hospitals where stroke victims and accident victims, et cetera can access these studies."

 

"But what they have been doing to try and solve the problem is that they have been trying to outsource. So what happened is that with the public-private partnerships, instead of trying to develop the capacity of the public health sector, they're using money to pay for investigations at market price, not even well-negotiated deals, at private institutions," he argued.