Dear Editor,

Despite the non-compliance with the COVID-19 protocols by many Jamaicans, by now it should be clear to all that, in the middle of this pandemic, the current health care system in Jamaica is unable to provide adequate and appropriate medical care for patients that are admitted with the disease.

There have been several demonstrations of this, the last one reported as being the case of the 34-year-old female admitted to the Kingston Public Hospital, who allegedly had to be frantically texting her loved ones asking them to call the hospital and let someone know that her ventilator had not been working properly. The outcome, of course, is that she died.

In fact, the health care system currently cannot adequately and appropriately provide medical care even for patients who do not have COVID-19 and present at hospitals suffering from other medical issues. One of the last demonstrations of this is the tragic report of the teenager who was taken to the University Hospital of the West Indies while having an asthma attack and, as it was reported in the press, medical staff refused giving her oxygen despite her mother’s pleas, only for her to be rushed to another hospital by her mother, and eventually pronounced dead in her mother’s arms. This is a profoundly heart-rending, unacceptable and avoidable tragedy.

If I understand correctly what has come out in the press, I believe that it is totally unacceptable that the Government’s actual national vaccine plan is to have the entire population of Jamaica vaccinated by mid-2022; more than one year from now. By then I suspect quite a percentage of the population would already have died from COVID-19, the health care system will have collapsed, and we will be nowhere near herd immunity.

I believe that it is time that the Government recognises that in the same way they could not manage the COVID-19 testing without assistance from private entities, they also cannot manage the vaccination programme without help from private entities. I believe it has to involve the Medical Association of Jamaica, the private sector, the pharmaceutical companies, and any other appropriate entity, with directives and protocols established by the Government. This would include the purchase, allocation and administering of vaccines.

There are many Jamaicans that I know of who have already gone overseas and been vaccinated, and several others that are planning to do the same. Most Jamaicans, even those that can pay, do not have that option. If the vaccine were offered from specific private practitioners through some established programme with the Government for them to obtain the vaccine, I suspect that a large percentage of the population would pay substantially more than the cost to land the vaccine in the refrigerators of the private doctors’ offices, even by payment in advance, to get the shot. This would take some of the burden off the Government’s vaccination programme, as well as some of the burden off the hospitals that treat COVID-19 patients, and likely save a lot of lives.

With this approach, we might be able to have our entire population vaccinated well before the end of 2021 and reach herd immunity. Prime Minister Andrew Holness and Health Minister Christopher Tufton, what say you?

Concerned Jamaican over 60