St. Thomas Health Department
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JCSA President Techa Clarke-Griffiths and Errol Greene, Regional Director of the South East Regional Health Authority
By Prince Moore
The Jamaica Civil Service Association (JCSA) says its members at the St. Thomas Health Department have been working under deplorable conditions with no air conditioning unit for years even with hotter temperatures facing the country.
The situation has been affecting employees handling health records.
It comes as the Ministry of Health & Wellness is urging members of the public to reduce their exposure to heat, with the island set to experience hotter than normal temperature.
The Health Ministry has reminded the public that excessive heat stress is harmful to health and is potentially fatal.
JCSA President Techa Clarke-Griffiths says some employees are unable to operate due to the extreme heat at the health department.
She says she visited the location on Thursday in response to complaints from the workers.
"I can tell you that the health records workers are working in a furnace. And where they are located, the situation is so bad that when we went there, the workers were sweating. In fact, three of the employees are off the job because of the conditions under which they are working," she disclosed.
"Now, having gone out there and saw (sic) the conditions that the workers were working in, we told them that they need to come out of the building because of the threat of what could happen to them. As a matter of fact, I think they run the risk of hurting themselves and even getting a heat stroke," cautioned Mrs. Clarke-Griffiths.
Noting that the department is an arm of the Ministry of Health, she said the explanation from the management about the intolerable working conditions is unacceptable.
"Now we are talking about the air condition unit that has been down since 2020. One has been down since 2020 and the other one went down last year in November-December. I want to ask, why is it that we are taking four years to have a procurement process completed to procure two air conditions that I'm sure don't cost $300,000?"
She further complained that Regional Director of the South East Regional Health Authority, Errol Greene, was unaware of the issue when she reached out to him.
When Radio Jamaica News spoke with Mr. Greene, he said efforts are being made to replace the malfunctioning AC units.
"I know that we're in the process of purchasing air condition units to replace the units in that space, but I don't know that it has been broken down from 2020," he insisted.
Still, he said a meeting held to address the issue was "fruitful" and the new air condition units will be acquired expeditiously.
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