The Jamaican electorate, we in this space believe, is sophisticated enough to take with a grain, or even a barrel, of salt the customary utterances from the political party spokespersons during the election silly season.

Yet, even at that we can’t grasp the most recent charge and counter-charge between Health Minister Dr Christopher Tufton and his Opposition counterpart Dr Alfred Dawes about 105 missing or unaccounted for ventilators.

Dr Dawes, who is, in all likelihood, Mr Mark Golding’s choice for health minister should his People’s National Party win the next general election, fired the first salvo in urging the minister to state the whereabouts of the machines.

The ventilators were provided through the efforts of the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica, the European Union, and concerned private individuals to help patients with breathing problems in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Dr Tufton insists that there’s no truth to the claims; the ventilators are still in use or, if not, cannot be used due to a lack of beds in the intensive care unit (ICU) where that facility exists, which is not everywhere.

It seems to us that the he-said, she-said between the two gentlemen is unnecessary and smacks of incompetence.

Surely, it can’t be that difficult to provide evidence that 105 ventilators are missing, or present, in a small country such as ours? Wouldn’t their distribution and receipt be documented?

Dr Dawes is apparently relying on social media, of all things, as proof that his claims are true, knowing that the populace is primed to believe in the slightest suggestion of corruption on the part of government politicians, one of whom he is seeking to become.

“I wish I didn’t have to comment on the stories circulating on social media, but it must be said that these unfortunate yet expected consequences stem from the reluctance to take the hard road of reforming the entire public health system,” Dr Dawes asserted confidently.

He was no doubt emboldened by reports that a mother had been left agonising over the death of her newborn, who doctors at May Pen Hospital in Clarendon struggled to keep alive because there was no ventilator.

For his part, Dr Tufton is asking the country to take his word for it that the ventilator machines are where they should be and being used for their designated purpose in State health facilities.

As minister of health, he should be in a position to show documented proof stating where and when the ventilators were presented to what facilities. That should take nothing more than a simple phone call, e-mail, or text to his permanent secretary.

This is making Dr Dawes and his social media claims look good. But, more importantly, it is necessary to debunk the allegations if our under-resourced health system is to maintain the kind of credibility that encourages donors to respond to urgent calls for assistance.

Moreover, the Opposition spokesman has been making some serious utterances about the health system that should not go unanswered in the public sphere:

“Despite the increase in the Ministry of Health and Wellnes’s budget, the allocation and misallocation of funds have left Jamaicans feeling worse off than before the pandemic, which saw the most significant increase in health-care spending in a generation,” Dawes says.

Is this to be taken as fact?