FALMOUTH, Trelawny — Health and Wellness Minister Dr Christopher Tufton is encouraging louder condemnation of reckless drivers who are putting other road users at risk.

“We don’t hear enough people who argue for that, arguing for why we don’t slow down on the roads, why we don’t stop intoxicating ourselves and then driving, or overtaking a line of traffic against the rules. That argument needs to be a lot louder, because — and I put it to you in a very crude way — we will never be able to afford enough ambulances for a society that conducts its affairs in a way that does not regard the discipline that is required to minimise these kinds of catastrophes,” Tufton said last Thursday during a function at Falmouth Public General Hospital in Trelawny.

The function was the official presentation of an ambulance to the hospital from the Government of Japan, bringing the fleet to four.

“You can’t build enough hospitals. You can’t put [in] enough hospital beds or surgeons… We are too reckless as a people when it comes to how we conduct ourselves on the road,” Tufton said.

“People often complain — and I appreciate the sensitivity, the reality of the high-trauma society we live in — why is it that we don’t have more ambulances? Why we don’t have more to respond to the challenges of trauma on the roads? It’s a reasonable concern to express, and we must always try to do better [at] recognising the context and the circumstances,” added Tufton.

Highlighting the pressure placed on the hospital from frequent crashes on the section of Highway 2000 that runs through the parish, Tufton noted that on average, 15 to 20 motor vehicle crash victims are taken to the hospital’s Accident and Emergency department weekly.

“We need to appreciate… the impact it has on the public health services; the extent to which it ties up the doctors and the nurses in the first instance to stabilise people [so] they don’t bleed to death; overcome the trauma and the pain that they are suffering from; and then, of course, to administer curative measures, oftentimes including operating theatres in patient care. But, of course, it starts with moving them from the scene,” said Tufton.

“This area is particularly dangerous, and I say to all of us, we need to be more cautious as we approach the efforts to control and manage the traumas — and hopefully just those that we can’t avoid, not those that we can,” added the health minister.

Last Friday, in its daily crash report, the Island Traffic Authority stated that as at February 28, 2025, Jamaica recorded 60 road deaths from 55 fatal collisions, a 15 per cent decrease compared to the corresponding period last year.

Of the 55 crashes five occurred in Trelawny with five deaths.

Falmouth Public General Hospital CEO Princess Wedderburn expressed gratitude for the ambulance, valued at US$105,000.

“The hospital is located primarily along an accident belt… [and] needs a reliable and safe ambulance service. On average, the transport team is called upon to assist in responding to approximately four accident scenes per week. This, in addition to the facility’s needs to transport patients to diagnostic services as well as other hospitals [amounts to] at least eight trips daily,” Wedderburn said.

“We are overjoyed to be accepting this new ambulance, a well-needed addition to the fleet at this facility,” added Wedderburn.

Deputy head of mission at the Embassy of Japan in Jamaica, Hirotsuga Ikeda, described the donation as a signal of his Government’s continued commitment to helping improve Jamaica’s health sector.

“In the year 2021 Japan donated… US$2 million to seven hospitals in Jamaica. I’m sorry that [was] not [provided] for all of the parishes in Jamaica but our aid helped seven hospitals,” he said.

He also pointed to US$1.2 million donated by Japan to strengthen Jamaica’s vaccine programme, as well as the donation of medical equipment, through United Nations Children’s Fund, to help combat the COVID-19 pandemic.

Hirotsuga Ikeda, deputy head of mission at the Embassy of Japan in Jamaica, addressing a function last Thursday at which the Government of Japan donated an ambulance to Falmouth Public General Hospital. (Photo: Horace Hines)

TUFTON… we need to appreciate the impact it has on the public health services; the extent to which it ties up the doctors and the nurses to stabilise people so they don’t bleed to death