MONTEGO BAY, St James — Health and Wellness Minister Dr Christopher Tufton has welcomed news that an ambulance is now stationed at Sangster International Airport (SIA) in Montego Bay.

“I have not heard [that SIA now has a dedicated ambulance] but it would be the right thing to do,” he said in response to questions from the Jamaica Observer Thursday afternoon.

During a visit to the busy airport, a red vehicle with the words LifeCall Ambulance Service was seen parked in the departure area. This was in stark contrast to September 4 when no ambulance was on site as medical personnel cared for an elderly Jamaican passenger, 71-year-old Florida resident Leroy Smith, who eventually died. At the time, MBJ Ltd, the operator of SIA, had an arrangement with private medical facility Hospiten to have an ambulance dispatched when called.

On Thursday, despite the change made by MBJ Ltd, Tufton said he still intends to work alongside Transport Minister Daryl Vaz to push through legislation that will make it a requirement for entities such as SIA to have an ambulance on site.

“An international airport should have emergency services, including ambulance. It’s important based on the risks involved and the international implications of airport operations,” he stressed.

Faced with backlash since Smith’s death became public, MBJ Ltd has repeatedly insisted that it followed protocols that existed at the time, a message its Commercial business Development and marketing manager Sharon Hislop-Holt repeated on Thursday.

“A nurse has always been stationed here also. So, if an ambulance is required, it is readily available,” she said, adding that the dedicated ambulance “will provide the same coverage as it would before, the only difference now it is now stationed on the airport.”

The absence of an on-site ambulance has been a critical part of discussions about Smith’s death.

In a now-viral video, a woman, who said she saw him take his last breath, estimated that it took 20 to 30 minutes for him to receive medical care. She partially attributed the delay to insistence by a man, who she assumed to be an airport employee because of the vest he wore, that Smith’s relatives agree to pay a US$400 fee before an ambulance was dispatched.

However, MBJ Ltd said its review of CCTV footage showed that within one minute of the airport’s emergency response being activated at 11:12 am, Hospiten was notified and a nurse was on spot six minutes later.

It said from 11:15 am to 11:28 am the airport’s operations centre attempted to get an ambulance to the airport.

“They contacted the Emergency Medical Service (EMS) arm of the Jamaica Fire Brigade (JFB) and subsequently the Cornwall Regional Hospital (CRH), both of which proved unsuccessful,” MBJ Ltd said, adding that contact was eventually made with Hospiten’s ambulance service which arrived at 11:40 am.

Based on the timeline MBJ provided, this was 28 minutes after Smith collapsed. However, MBJ Ltd stressed that Hospiten staff provided medical assistance to Smith during that interval. This included CPR and the use of an automated external defibrillator (AED).

“At no time was the passenger left unattended or without medical care once the Hospiten personnel arrived,” it said.