KINGSTON – Minister of Health and Wellness, Dr Christopher Tufton is in the Philippines where he is pursuing a partnership to boost Jamaica’s human resources for health.

The Minister’s travel to the Philippines follows the visit of Dr Teodoro Herbosa, Secretary of Health for the Philippines, to Jamaica in January when the two countries signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to collaborate around the health workforce in both countries.

“Since arriving in the Philippines, we have had a series of bilateral discussions involving my team and his [Secretary Herbosa’s] to work out the details of a training programme between the two countries for specialist nurses,” Tufton said.

“The idea is to have Jamaican specialist nurses trained remotely and then to have our trainees coming on rotation to hospitals here [in the Philippines],” he explained.

“We are also working through possibilities for healthcare workers from the Philippines coming to work in Jamaica as well as to have faculty members from the Philippines do training in Jamaica,” the minister added.

Tufton said his ministry was also working through possibilities for healthcare workers from the Philippines coming to work in Jamaica as well as to have faculty members from the Philippines do training in Jamaica.

Jamaica and the Philippines signed the MoU on health cooperation in New Kingston on January 23 – day two of the first-ever Health & Wellness Career Expo and Employment Fair.

That event, hosted by the Ministry of Health and Wellness in collaboration with the Ministry of Education, Skills, Youth and Information, saw the participation of the Secretary of Health, who was present for the opening ceremony of that event a day earlier.

“By pooling our expertise and resources, we can offer better training and ensure an equitable distribution of healthcare professionals,” Tufton said at the time.

The MoU provides for faculty or trainer exchanges, as well as training and certification of health professionals. It also allows for capacity-building and knowledge sharing in biotechnology, medical equipment, epidemiology and healthcare management; and exchange visits for specialist nurses and other professionals.

The efforts to partner on the health workforce in the two countries come as Jamaica and other small island developing states face challenges with their human resources for health. These challenges include competition to retain health workers, including nurses, who are routinely recruited by oversees employers from the developed world.