Opposition spokesman on health Dr Alfred Dawes on Tuesday dissected the performance of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) Government in providing health care to Jamaicans claiming there are glaring failures in how the system is being run.

Dawes, who is expected to contest the St Catherine South Eastern seat in the September 3 General Election, used the launch of the People’s National Party (PNP) manifesto at Jamaica Pegasus hotel to also put forward what he said his party will do better if it gets the nod to form the next Government.

“The people have suffered long enough. They have cried too often. Billions have been spent with lives not saved but friends enriched. The PNP will not boast of the money that is spent, it will boast of the lives saved. I am here tonight not to sell you a manifesto. I am here to invite you on a journey,” Dawes said to loud applause.

“It is a journey of creating a world-class health sector. It is a journey towards good health care with dignity, where you are treated like smaddy pickney. It is a journey to reform health care, because for too long we have been kicking the reform can down the road. Now we are at the end of that road. We will be reforming health care to meet the needs of the people and it won’t be done for optics and marketing,” added Dawes.

The medical doctor told the mainly PNP members and supporters that he has been in situations where decisions have to be made regarding which patient will get a bed or be placed on oxygen due to the lack of resources in public hospitals.

“I have been the doctor who decides who gets the bed and who gets to sit in a chair for days because there are no more beds. I have been the doctor who decides who gets oxygen because oxygen is low. I am part of the medical team that decides who gets to go into the Intensive Care Unit — that has one available bed — and who has to die.

“That is not a responsibility that you would want to wish on your worst enemy, but it is a responsibility that is faced everyday by our health-care workers. You don’t want to be those health-care workers and worse, you don’t want to be that patient or relative. Billions have been wasted, while millionaires created,” Dawes claimed.

According to Dawes, the JLP Administration is more focused on infrastructural projects and not on the fact that clinics and hospitals across the island lack staff and basic equipment.

“The needs of the patients and the staff need to be addressed and not the needs of a politician. It cannot be that policies are guided by ribbon-cutting over service. Nothing short of comprehensive reform of the entire health-care sector is acceptable.

“The regional health authority is over 20 years now. We know that there is need for a level of reform and we will make those painful reforms. We will change administrative functions, fix the wastage of money, and we will drill down on the procurement issues,” said Dawes.