OPPOSITION Spokesperson for Health Senator Marlene Malahoo Forte says the decision by the ruling People’s National Party (PNP) to allow Health Minister Fenton Ferguson to address the public session of the party’s annual conference was “a slap in the face”.

“Dr Ferguson is widely regarded as the face of failure for this PNP Government, yet the PNP continues to reward him and expects everyone else to do the same.

“We can no longer accept such contempt for the people of Jamaica,” Senator Malahoo Forte said in a release. “Jamaicans at home and abroad will never forget Dr Ferguson’s disastrous handling of the nation’s critical health portfolio, especially his failure to prepare the country for the chikungunya epidemic. Under his watch the health sector has almost completely collapsed. Several persons have died and many are left in a poorer state medically. The blatant politicisation of significant sections of the sector coupled with widespread mismanagement has severely harmed the public health sector,” she added.

Senator Malahoo Forte insisted that the decision by the PNP to put Dr Ferguson at the party podium at this time was another reminder to the rest of Jamaica that the PNP care more about its image and less about the welfare of the rest of the people of Jamaica. “Their attempts to boost the wilting profile of the minister at the party level, without holding him to account at the governmental level, are acts of arrogance and disrespect,” said the Opposition spokesman.

Senator Malahoo Forte also reiterated that the non-release of the full contents of the recent audit of the health sector by the ministry was an unacceptable cover-up, and she repeated her call for the Auditor General’s Department to carry out a comprehensive and independent audit of the public health sector.