On the heels of concerns that the Jamaica-Cuba Eye Care Programme has been shelved by the Government, even as officials admit to a backlog of eye surgeries, Health and Wellness Minister Dr Christopher Tufton is indicating that negotiations are under way to resume that initiative.

Opposition spokesman on health Dr Morais Guy last week criticised the Government for “shutting down” the programme in full after “significantly reducing” it prior to COVID-19.

According to Dr Guy, the backlog of eye surgeries which are now going to receive focus in the just announced CODE CARE programme under which the State will, among other things, import health-care workers to assist in performing elective surgeries, could be addressed under the Jamaica-Cuba Eye Care Programme.

“The Cuban eye programme dealt a lot with pterygium and cataracts; so, the backlog that is there the Government could reactivate that Cuban eye care programme which, I understand, the Government of Cuba is eager to continue offering. Those surgeries are not necessarily time-consuming nor do they require the outlay that the major surgeries in the backlog would require,” Dr Guy told the Jamaica Observer.

Dr Tufton, responding to his counterpart’s arguments, attempted to set the record straight.

“It’s not that the programme was shut down, but the arrangement had expired, and it expired during the COVID period and, of course, nothing was happening in that period anyway. So we have expressed an interest in renewing and both parties are now having conversations to bring it back on stream,” the health minister said.

“Having said that, it was a good programme. We will negotiate to get it back,” he added.

In the meantime, he said the eye surgery component of CODE CARE is still necessary.

Furthermore, Dr Tufton said, “we have an eye care programme in the public health system — the Kingston Public Hospital has a big eye care programme — so persons should not get the impression that because the Cuban eye care programme was suspended there was no eye care programme, it would certainly add to the capacity of what is being done”.

In 2019 Tufton and Cuban Ambassador to Jamaica Inés Fors Fernández signed a technical cooperation agreement to extend the project. Up to that time, the programme, which was implemented in 2010, had benefited 30,000 Jamaicans.

The programme is administered from Kingston School of Nursing, National Chest Hospital, and St Joseph’s Hospital.