The governing Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) and the Opposition People’s National Party (PNP) clashed over the the state of the island’s health sector at Saturday night’s social issues election debate.

When asked what it will require to improve patient care at public hospitals and other healthcare facilities, Labour and Social Security Minister, Pearnel Charles Jr, said the JLP-led Administration seriously considers improving the country’s health infrastructure.

“We have upgraded 138 of our health centres, we have rebuilt and restructure key hospitals and have started to construct the regional children’s and adolescent hospital,” he pointed out.

In addition to the health infrastructure development, Charles Jr said 3,000 positions have been created by the government for medical professionals, as well as many scholarships.

But it was Kamina Johnson Smith who knocked the PNP for its alleged poor performance in health care while in government.

“It’s important to remember that the Jamaica Labour Party inherited a health sector in absolute crisis, where their own Opposition spokesperson said that surgeons had to be wearing garbage bags to operate,” Johnson Smith suggested.

The PNP’s Damion Crawford, in his rebuttal, said the JLP’s failure in government was evident in the health system.

“Indeed, Cornwall Regional (Hospital) is an excellent example,” Crawford asserted, arguing that billions have been spent and the rehabilitation works have not been completed there.

“The number one hospitals in Jamaica, also including our children’s hospital, does not have a MRI or a CT Scan available,” he claimed.

Meanwhile, PNP debate team member, Raymond Pryce lambasted the absence of Health and Wellness Minister, Dr Christopher Tufton from the social issues debate, to answer to the public about his performance in the health sector.