Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Jamaica truns to Cuba in an effort to boost its Health Care system

Jamaican Minister of Health Rudyard Spencer says his Government will be recruiting an additional 56 health-care workers from Cuba next month to boost the capacity of the sector.

"We have a tremendous shortage (of health-care workers) worldwide, not just in Jamaica, ... this is why the Ministry of Health has entered into an arrangement with the Cuban government," he said.

He was speaking recently at the official reopening of the Seaview Gardens Health Centre in Kingston Jamaica.

He noted that a team from the ministry visited Cuba last month and interviewed a batch of more than 200 nurses, from which 114 will be selected. These nurses, with various specialities, will be placed in both primary and secondary care systems.

He noted that the workers already recruited have been "doing extremely well", adding that the Cubans have been especially proficient in terms of the service offered at the Jamaica/Cuba Ophthalmology Centre, at the St Joseph's Hospital in Kingston.

Spencer pointed out that, within the first two months of operation, over 1,500 patients were treated at the centre, and it is facilitating persons with eye problems who otherwise would have had to travel to Cuba for treatment.

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