WESTMORELAND, Jamaica – Even as he stressed that now is not the time for finger pointing, Health and Wellness Minister Dr Christopher Tufton has refuted claims by IGL, the country’s sole provider of medical grade oxygen, that the Government dropped the ball in ensuring the country has an adequate supply to cope with the third wave of COVID-19 now gripping the country.

In a statement on Wednesday, IGL said they had repeatedly raised the issue weeks ago but there had been no response from the ministry.

However, speaking with OBSERVER ONLINE a short while ago at the Negril Health Centre in Westmoreland, the health minister fired back.

Read more- Oxygen neglect

MOH rejects claims made by IGL over medical oxygen supply

“IGL doesn’t represent the ministry,” said Tufton.  “It is an unfortunate statement because it is not accurate. The fact is that we have had several discussions on our projections surrounding the possibility of a third wave and those discussions led to a determination on what requirements were needed for medical oxygen.”

Last weekend, several hospitals ran low while others ran out of oxygen after demand surged from several hospitals across the island. The shortage was eased on Monday following the importation of the product which was immediately distributed to hospitals island wide.

Tufton noted that while IGL is producing at its plant in Kingston, they had a challenge with utilising their network of suppliers to import the medical oxygen on time.

“In fairness to them, they did produce and increase production. The challenge has been their capacity to use their networks of suppliers to bring oxygen on time,” said the minister.

“What we saw last weekend was their inability so to do on time and the reason includes one supplier saying they weren’t prepared to supply them and would be supplying their own market in the US,” Tufton added.

“So to say that somehow they didn’t know about the requirements under the third wave projections is not accurate because we had that information, we provided that information long before – how many people were likely going to be hospitalised, a thousand. What level of oxygen would be needed? What they could produce and how much they would need to get,” the minister disclosed.

He said he is hoping that IGL will clarify the situation.

“We don’t need to get into the blame game. It is not healthy for what is happening now. What we need to do now is to work together,” he appealed. “I know that in cases like this there is a tendency for many people to be pressured to the point of trying to shift the burden. I can’t afford to do that. I am the minister of health. I have the ultimate responsibility. I work with a team and the team is very straightforward, technically competent and they provide the information, not just current but the future.”

Anthony Lewis