KINGSTON, Jamaica – The Bustamante Industrial Trade Union (BITU) has come out in support of calls for the release of the details of the Government’s recent audit of public health facilities.

In a release on the issue, BITU President, Senator Kavan Gayle, said that the union believes that the workers and their representatives have a right to be furnished with the details of the challenges of the health services.

Senator Gayle said that these details are important in protecting health sector workers from the anger of both the public and their patients.

“Some workers we represent not only fear exposure to diseases while working in these facilities without protective gear, but every day they have to face the wrath of angry patients and relatives,” Gayle said.

“Workers, such as our dedicated pharmacists, fear the threat of legal action from patients and their families from issues such as the use of outdated medicines,” he added.

He said that the Union supports the call for the Health Minister to update the country on the audits, in light of the numerous complaints about hospital mismanagement, shortage of supplies, broken equipment and the alleged dispensing of outdated drugs by some pharmacies.

He said that the also supports the position that the Auditor General should also conduct her own audit of the facilities.

Minister of Health, Dr Fenton Ferguson, has refused to release the full findings of the audits of the four regional health authorities, which he commissioned in May.

Concerns about the state of hospitals and the conditions under which staff had to work triggered the audit. Ferguson says that plans are in place to deal with the areas of concern. However, despite calls from the Opposition to release the details he has refused to do so.

Balford Henry