FALMOUTH, Trelawny — More medical staff, ambulances, and high-tech equipment were among the positives cited by Health Minister Dr Christopher Tufton as he reeled off what he said were improvements made at Falmouth Public General Hospital over the last nine years under his leadership of the ministry.

Tufton noted that there are now 29 doctors on staff at the hospital — 17 more than the 12 working there in 2016. He also pointed out that the 149 nurses now on board represent 32 more than nine years ago, and the number of functioning operating theatres has moved from two to four.

The minister was speaking during the Japanese Government’s handover of an ambulance to the Type ‘C’ hospital last Thursday.

“Falmouth, for the first in a long time, with this very lovely gift from the Japanese people, has four working ambulances on this compound to serve this area. Working! We have five [but] one of them is mothballed [while] four are working, I am told by the team. That’s not a bad ratio for the size of the hospital and for the area that it serves,” said an obviously pleased Tufton.

The ambulance handover provided an opportunity for him to hammer home to Falmouth residents the work the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) Administration has been doing. The JLP and the Opposition People’s National Party are jostling for voters’ attention ahead of a general election constitutionally due in September.

“I’m going to look, when I leave here, at the state-of-the-art, high-tech, digital diagnostic that the radiologist right here can validate. That is not an opinion — [it] is a fact. I’m going look at it, fully installed. Falmouth gone high-tech with diagnostic — that’s a fact, that’s not an opinion,” he added.

The minister also made reference to the huge increase in the number of residents in and around the parish now benefiting from free drugs under the National Health Fund (NHF). He said there were 22,000 in 2016 and by last year the number had more than doubled.

“In 2024… 45,000 prescriptions were written for the benefit of persons living in this parish and around this area. That’s 100 per cent increase in drugs being administered to solve people’s problems, to cure their illnesses, to address their symptoms, written by doctors, accessed free of cost at the DrugServ or pharmacy here at the hospital,” Tufton said.

“So let’s summarise. I’m going to ask the question and you answer it: Are we better off today than we were in 2016? Is the Government providing more for the people of Trelawny than there were in 2016? Now, I’m not making it solely a political argument,” he cajoled.

Tufton also repeated an often-used talking point, playing up the Government’s handling of severe challenges such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We’re stronger and more resilient as a public health infrastructure and a public health ecosystem,” he said.

“We are stronger on several fronts. Stronger in terms of partnerships, because even though we had a friendship that was strong with the people and the Government of Japan — and they are just one of several — the truth is, those relationships have gotten stronger, if for no other reason but the need to overcome the COVID-19 pandemic,” added Tufton.

Deputy head of mission at the Embassy of Japan in Jamaica, Hirotsugu Ikeda underlined the partnership between both governments in making improvements to the local health sector. Though he wished more could have been done to reach more parishes, the diplomat cited wins such as Japan’s 2021 donation of US$2 million in aid that benefited a number of hospitals.

“Our aid helped seven hospitals, and also US$1.2 million to strengthen vaccine cold chain capacity was donated. And also, through UNICEF, my Government donated medical equipment and resources to tackle COVID-19,” Ikeda said.

Tufton, who has been the minister of health and wellness since the JLP came to power in 2016, noted that despite the litany of achievements there is more work to be done within the sector. It is a point he has made before.

“I’m prepared to say we need to do more on customer service because sometimes you get some calls about people who are disgruntled, and when you really think it through you realise that [it may have helped] if… more attention was paid to just talking to the aggrieved person, to explaining why things are happening,” he said.

“We have ways to go, and there’s a lot more to come. Cornwall [Regional Hospital] needs to be opened [to] take the burden off here and therefore have more attention for the people here,” the minister added.