More than 60% of health centres restored in hurricane-ravaged parishes

 

The Ministry of Health and Wellness says more than 60% of health centres in the five parishes that were severely affected by Hurricane Melissa have been restored to normal services.

 

Chief Medical Officer Dr. Jacquiline Bisasor-McKenzie said this has eased some of the burden on hospitals in St. Elizabeth, Westmoreland, St. James, Trelawny and Hanover.

 

"That's a tremendous amount of work that has been done by the primary health care team because many of these facilities have been severely affected. We have 99 facilities within those five parishes and I would say more than half of them have lost roof, etc. But we've managed to get 60-70% of them up, offering routine services, another 10-20% are offering partial services and for the 20% that are still down, we have our community health aides that are in the field and they are directing the patients to where it is that they need to go for their immunisation, for their antenatal care to get their prescriptions and to manage their acute and chronic problems," she outlined.

 

She urged patience from members of the public as the health sector recovers.

 

Dr. Bisasor-McKenzie said the ministry is responding to reports of people who are in need of treatment or medication but have been unable to go to health facilities.

 

"We understand that there are some places that may have been cut off or may, because of some reason, persons are not able to find the facilities that they normally go. We want to know about those cases so that we can make the necessary interventions. As I said, the parish health teams have been working hard and have been very responsive to the needs of the population," she advised.