ST JAMES, Jamaica — Minister of Health and Wellness, Dr Christopher Tufton has suggested that alternatives will be put in place to address limitations with primary healthcare in St James after the passage of hurricane Melissa.

“In this parish, you have 24 health centres, my understanding is that there are about eight or nine that are up and running fully, the others have been damaged in some way, shape or form,” he disclosed.

The minister was speaking to reporters after addressing staff members at the St James Health Services in Montego Bay on Friday afternoon when he highlighted the options being looked at.

“We have engaged mobile pharmacy and mobile clinics to go into some of the communities,” he said.

“We are trying to make makeshift facilities to fill the void while doing the assessment on the health centres that we need to fix up so we can get them up,” he added.

Further to that he also provided an update on operations at the major health institution in the parish amid the ongoing struggles that the parish has been facing.

“For us, we started off by trying to get Cornwall Regional Hospital up and running, at least the Accident and Emergency Unit and I think we are there now despite some challenges still,” he revealed.

“Right now what we are trying to do is to get the primary healthcare facilities back up while we start some work on the hospitals to get more inpatient care and so on to take place,” he added.

However, he said that there is now an increase in the focus on primary healthcare because of what can arise following a storm such as Melissa.

“Having gone through the storm and focused on accident and emergency, the time is now to focus on the environmental risks that will then flow a week or two or three after the storm,” he said.

“One of them is mosquitoes, the other is rodents/ rats and rat borne diseases and the other is food borne diseases and water borne diseases,” he explained.

He said that it was important to meet with the staff in this manner to get a feel of the needs and wants to address the challenges that may arise with this situation at the primary level.

“What we doing here now, I’ve been moving from Trelawny going all the way to Westmoreland, meeting now with the vector workers and our public health officers, looking at what they have, the numbers, the temporary ones that will be brought on, the private contractors that they may need to be hired, their state of readiness in terms of fogging machines, vehicles and their deployment,” he revealed.

“We are really saying to them we are with you but we need you now to be out there on the front line,” he said.

He also pointed to the fact that residents too have a part to play in this whole situation given what may arise as they try to adjust to the challenges associated with current limitations they face and to keep themselves safe.

“There is a message too for citizens because they have to take precautions around asking questions about food that is available and being prepared, making sure they drink clean water, bottled water, boiled water, filtered water,” he said.

“Of course ensuring that they take whatever precautions they can in the present context around using a repellent, destroying breeding sites to avoid the impact,” he added.