KINGSTON, Jamaica — Minister of Health and Wellness, Dr Christopher Tufton, says that significant work has been done under the Health System Strengthening Programme since its launch last year.

“We have made some strides in implementation. These include design work for 11 of the 13 facilities to benefit under the programme. We are going through final approvals and from what I have seen of the preliminary drafts, it is rather encouraging,” he said.

The Health Minister added that the ongoing rehabilitation of laundry facilities at the three hospitals targeted for upgrading under the programme has commenced, so too the procurement of medical equipment with a focus on enhancing diagnostic screening capabilities, and the rollout of telemonitoring training of public health practitioners.

“We have started that and that is going fairly well,” he said, noting that these and other efforts will be accelerated in the coming months.

Tufton was speaking at the Visibility Ceremony for the Non-Reimbursable Grant Financing from the European Union-Caribbean Investment Facility (EU-CIF) held at the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service in Kingston on Wednesday (July 7).

The EU-CIF contribution of J$1.8 billion (€10.2 million) is to support the programme, which is being funded through a US$50-million loan from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).

The initiative, which aims to bolster the country’s capacity to effectively address the issue of non-communicable diseases (NCDs), will see the upgrading and development of three hospitals and 10 health centres, to benefit some 800,000 Jamaicans. The grant from the EU-CIF is for the work to be done on the health centres.

Tufton said that the Health System Strengthening Programme is important, given that 70 per cent of Jamaicans die from NCDs, noting that “a fair bit of that number represents premature death if you speak to a life expectancy of 70-plus years”.

“The data reflect the clear and present danger of the scourge of NCDs, which warrants a change in the operation and management of the public health system to a chronic care model that allows for interventions at the patient-provider and systems level, together with the renewal of primary healthcare which we are working on a plan for,” he said.

Tufton noted that the programme also supports the creation of a health information system for the transfer of paper records to digital format, while enhancing the overall management of the health of Jamaicans.

The minister thanked the IDB and EU for partnering with the Government on the initiative.

“This programme is a good example of what is possible for public health when a committed group of partners get together in the public-health interest. My very special thanks to these partners for the support of this programme, which represents the single largest investment in public health infrastructure in decades,” he said.

Head of the EU Delegation to Jamaica, Ambassador Marianne Van Steen, shared that among the projects to be undertaken through the EU-CIF Grant Financing is the building of a new clinic in Brown’s Town, St. Ann, to replace the existing facility that is struggling with limited space, old and inadequate infrastructure and equipment, limited availability of pharmacy services, and is dependent on the St. Ann’s Bay Hospital for its services.

“We very much hope that the new facility that will be built will have an approximate floor area of 23,000 square feet while at the moment it is only at 1,300 square feet. There will also be a brand-new treatment and emergency operating centre,” she noted.