KINGSTON, Jamaica (JIS) — Minister of Health Dr Christopher Tufton has asked the leadership of the country’s main teaching hospital, the University Hospital of the West Indies (UHWI), to take steps towards establishing a telemedicine platform in Jamaica.

Addressing members of the Rotary Club of St Andrew North who called on him recently at his New Kingston office, the minister said he has requested the institution’s Board Chairman James Moss-Solomon and the Acting Medical Chief of Staff Dr Carl Bruce to work on a telemedicine platform, and as such, they have been having conversations with various stakeholders.

The chairman and Bruce are also scheduled to travel to Panama to view the technology in action.

“What we would like to do is to use the larger institutions like the UHWI, Cornwall Regional Hospital and Kingston Public Hospital, to reach out and use the capacity and expertise that they have and administer patient care remotely to those hospitals that are not so resourced,” he noted.

Tufton said he envisions having the infrastructure installed in the smaller healthcare facilities in Black River, Savanna-la-Mar, Port Antonio, Port Maria and others, so that patients are not required to travel long distances for certain procedures.

“Telemedicine is very big internationally. Imaging can be administered in America, the results read in India and transmitted back. There is no reason why we shouldn’t have that here in Jamaica,” he said.

The minister was speaking against the background of the UHWI Accident and Emergency Department being chosen for an equipment upgrade by the Rotary Club as its major project for the 2016-2017 Rotary year. 

Tufton asked the members to consider defining the club’s role in the build-out of the whole apparatus, and expressed his appreciation to the club for making the first step.