MONTEGO BAY, St James — The University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona says it will train a lot more medical professionals this academic year, part of a Global Health Programmes (GHP) initiative launched at its Western Jamaica Campus in Montego Bay on Tuesday afternoon.

Under the programme The UWI will double the number of nurses trained at the Western Jamaica Campus.

The UWI’s Faculty of Medical Sciences, which currently provides training for 3,200 undergraduate students at its Montego Bay and Kingston locations, plans to ramp up offerings under a four-pronged strategy that includes improved financial stability by getting a foothold in the training of the country’s health professionals.

“We plan to expand these this [academic] year. First is our nursing programme right here, the Western Jamaica Centre. Initially, we plan to increase by 100 per cent our intake of nurses and to increase our Mona campus system by about 33 per cent in academic year 2025/2026,” acting deputy principal of The UWI, Mona, Professor Marvin Reid disclosed during the launch of GHP.

“The expansion of our health professional training should be viewed as our complete commitment to the citizens of Jamaica to increase access by responding to the needs of our constituents but since we live in a global village, and being served by a global university, we are also responding to the needs of the international community as well. In other words, global health is local. It also serves as a recommitment to our western partners as we collectively strive towards a more egalitarian society,” Reid noted.

According to its website, in addition to a Bachelor of Science in Nursing, GHP will also offer a Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery; Bachelor of Science in Diagnostic Imaging; a Doctor of Pharmacy programme; as well as a doctorate in dental surgery.

There has been a chronic shortage of health-care professionals in Jamaica for years as many are lured abroad by offers of higher-paying jobs. Critics have suggested solutions such as Jamaica accepting and benefitting from its reputation as a training ground for competent medical staff for export. Meanwhile, the Government has been rolling out a number of measures to make it less costly for locals studying medicine. Among these is $2.5 billion in scholarships over five years. On Tuesday, Reid urged students to take up the offer.

“We anticipate that by increasing our capacity we will actually have students take up those slots,” the UWI Mona administrator said.

As UWI pro-vice-chancellor and principal, Mona campus, Professor Densil Williams explained, the need to provide service to Cornwall Regional Hospital and the under-construction Western Children and Adolescents Hospital (WCAH), Falmouth Public General Hospital, Hospiten, and others in “the emerging health corridor” in Ironshore, St James, was among the reasons the GHP was launched in Montego Bay.

“Today is not just about medicine, it is indeed about the building of a new economic sector, the knowledge sector in western Jamaica — using higher education as the driver,” Williams stated.

The need to fill approximately 1,208 positions that will be vacant at WCAH when it opens its doors in about a year was also referenced by Health Minister Dr Christopher Tufton at an earlier event on Tuesday where he served notice that, with an existing gap of about 700, Jamaica may have to import medical professionals to meet demand.

At the GHP launch Tufton pledged the Government’s support for the initiative and welcomed Reid’s advice to students about taking advantage of financial support offered in the form of scholarships. He stressed, however, the need to ensure that the training that will be provided is in line with market needs.

“I really want to encourage you to move on this, to expect as much support as we can [give]. You already have $500 million to apply for funding with, and I have no issues with your students getting some of that as long as you have the right students and the right areas of study. And we have met and spoken on this before, so it’s all there. The Government is very happy about this and we will continue to support,” he told Reid just ahead of declaring the GHP launched.

Tufton described the programme as an inevitable step.

“This issue is impatient of debate. It has to happen. There is no choice. It’s not an issue of economics; it is an issue of survival in the first instance. Anybody who pushes back against this really is doing so without the vision and the foresight as to what is required to remain relevant. The only thing I’d say in closing is that we must ensure that standards are maintained. We have [built] a reputation on those standards,” the minister cautioned.

He added that the Government “stands ready to be a part of” the initiative, something for which he said he had long been “advocating”. Tufton also noted that, going forward, it will be vital to have input from both the local nursing and medical councils.

The GHP was also welcomed by Deputy Prime Minister Dr Horace Chang, who is also the minister of national security and Member of Parliament for St James North Western in which The UWI’s Western Campus is located; Opposition spokesperson on tourism, Senator Janice Allen; and mayor of Montego Bay, Councillor Richard Vernon.