THE Government is hoping that the health and wellness ministry’s inaugural two-day career expo and employment fair, which opened on Wednesday, will woo Jamaican nurses and other health-care professionals who have migrated overseas back into the local health-care system.

Being staged in collaboration with the education, skills, youth and information ministry, the event at The University of the West Indies, Mona campus, in St Andrew is aimed at filling more than 600 positions available in various health departments, hospitals, health centres, and agencies islandwide.

Speaking at the opening ceremony, Prime Minister Dr Andrew Holness lamented that Jamaica has a history of being a net exporter of talent, particularly in the field of health care. He noted that 800 nurses left the local health-care system in 2023, with 40 per cent of them being specialists, who are highly trained nurses.

He argued that this number is not likely to decline and so Jamaica must now manage this talent in a way that the country can also get the benefit of its well-skilled labour force.

“So, the jobs that are opened here [at this fair] are opened to anyone who wants to come and work here — and we are hoping that some of our nurses abroad and health professionals abroad will consider coming back,” he said.

“We tend to look at this as [if] this is impossible, [that] nobody will ever do that,” he said. However, he told the audience that he’s had discussions with the head of Nurses Association of Jamaica and found that there are some professionals who would like to return, “because it is not all about pay — conditions of work, quality of life, security of family, and your cultural connections are also important things. So, we have to create a system where we can leverage that talent that has been exported to come back to Jamaica and support our local health-care system”.

He said that as the Government works to transform the health sector with infrastructural and equipment upgrades, it also wants to, as part of this transformation plan, engage people who are genuinely interested in health care, who like health care, and who want to be health-care workers.

“We recognise that in the health system we can improve the infrastructure, we can improve the facilities, but to get the care in health we have to build the human capacity — and that is what today is about in the transformation exercise. It’s about building the human capacity to allow us to actually deliver care,” he said.

Holness further argued that the world, as we now know it, is changing, and the Government has to put itself in a position to be able to withstand the shocks that will come in a new global order.

“These shocks have already begun, and we are going to experience some shocks, not only from inflation, not only from climate change events, but we are going to experience shocks as it relates to migration — and we have to be prepared for that. We are not going to be on our knees grovelling, fearful of what is the future. No. What we do is plan transformational actions like this,” he said.

The expo is being held at Confucius Institute from 9:00 am to 8:00 pm. People interested in acquiring jobs in the health sector are encouraged to bring printed copies of their résumés for on-the-spot interviews, which will take place from 9:00 am to 12:00 noon and 1:00 pm to 5:00 pm.