HEALTH Minister Dr Christopher Tufton has defended the Government’s decision to bring in nurses from the Diaspora to help clear the backlog of elective surgeries amidst concerns that inadequate facilities and downed equipment will defeat the effort.

Tufton told Parliament last month that the Administration, through a programme dubbed CODE CARE, will seek to do an additional 1,000 surgeries over the next 10 months to clear up most, if not all, backlogs created by the suspensions which began in 2020 due to COVID-19.

But some stakeholders in the health sector have contended that CODE CARE was not well thought out and doomed to fail as the state of the infrastructure, including hospital theatres and hospital equipment, are more a need than personnel.

Responding to the critics during an interview with the Jamaica Observer last last week, Tufton said those arguments are unfounded.

“CODE CARE has a number of different components; I am prepared to say we may need to explain a little bit more, but it has a component that deals with the upgrading of operating theatres, it has, of course, the component of the identification and scheduling of the surgeries and personnel. The major bottleneck is the personnel contrary to what is being said,” insisted Tufton.

According to the health minister, the programme does envision upgrading and fixing up of the operating theatres for which audits are now being done.

He, however, argued that, “If those theatres were fixed up you still would have a bottleneck contrary to what is being said because we just don’t have the personnel, the operating theatre nurses.

“If all theatres were up and running, there would still be a backlog [of surgeries] because we do not have enough of the operating theatre nurses. We do not have enough of them even with perfect operating theatres. So the programme envisions the repairs that are necessary in those theatres that need repair because all of them need repair and addressing the shortage of operating theatre nurses.”

Tufton added: “I think sometimes we focus on one component and as a result use the flaws to give an indication that the programme can’t work or shouldn’t work, but we can’t allow perfection to be the enemy of the good.”

In the meantime the health minister said members of the medical profession should not fear that the imported nurses would displace them.

“The local doctors and nurses should have no fear about CODE CARE. In fact, CODE CARE will enhance their abilities to address some of the concerns that are outstanding. I am of the view that if we are going to be patient-centric and focus on the pain and suffering the patient is facing then we should be more willing to embrace adjusting our approach to accommodate higher levels of efficiency and I hope that we are not spending more time looking at why the system is imperfect and ignore the pain and suffering of patients out there,” said Tufton.

He further argued that Jamaica’s approach towards health care and health-care delivery must pivot towards greater collaboration.

“The world is experiencing shortages, so we must pivot towards training, research, telemedicine, exchange of expertise, and we must embrace that change and not fear that that change will affect our own job security or otherwise.

“CODE CARE is an attempt at focusing on the patient and I hope that those who are concerned will allow the programme an opportunity. Firstly, for them to understand it and secondly, to be reassured that this is not just about them, it is also about the patients who are suffering, many of them for a long time,” Tufton contended.

Under CODE CARE the health ministry will work with the Diaspora of health-care professionals who visit Jamaica for special surgery sessions to provide more efficient arrangements and access to hospital facilities and target elective surgeries with the longest wait.

Those surgeries include arthroplasty, undescended testis, and pterygium. A budgetary allocation of $300 million to repair and, where necessary, maintain the island’s operating theatres has been made to ground the effort.