MANDEVILLE, Manchester — Against the backdrop of the recently terminated Cuban medical programme, officials from the Southern Regional Health Authority (SRHA) are now rushing to recruit specialists to fill the vacancies left in south-central Jamaica.

SRHA Director Michael Bent told the Jamaica Observer that, while additional doctors and nurses have been employed, there is still work to be done to replace the skill set lost.

“We lost some 30-odd Cuban [medical] professionals throughout the region, with 10 from Mandeville, 10 from Clarendon, and the others at the facilities in the parishes. We have a strategy of trying to recruit some additional staff members [but] most of these Cubans were specialists [and] we have not necessarily recruited the specialists yet. But what we have done in some cases — where the [need is] not for specialists — we have recruited Jamaican doctors and nurses to fill that void,” said Bent.

He pointed out that the areas where specialists are needed include the radiology and nephrology departments at Mandeville Regional Hospital.

“These are [specialists] who I think we should be able to find replacements [for] in short order. We are looking to start later this month,” said Bent.

He said alternative measures implemented have so far mitigated against any detrimental impact of losing the Cuban medical professionals.

“We are not necessarily seeing any major fall-out yet in terms of these persons leaving, because we have some contingencies. We have some Jamaicans who were working along with the Cubans, so while there is a [challenge] in terms of manpower, we still have some skills here.

“We are trying to see if we can bridge that gap in short order. For radiology, we utilised staff from Black River to come in [to Mandeville] to do part-time, and we plan to recruit someone for that [area] as well. The process continues and we are actively doing it,” added Bent.

Meanwhile, chief executive officer at Mandeville Regional Hospital Alwyn Miller told the
Observer that with the Cuban medical programme having ended, the facility has lost some well-needed skills.

“The Cubans brought largely specialist skills to our country and to this hospital, and when we lost them some of our departments became affected. The ones that I am aware of being impacted most significantly — albeit that it is not necessarily a large amount of staff that work there — are our accident and emergency [department] which lost one in terms of specialist nurses; our high-dependency unit would have lost persons from there; and our pathology service, we lost at least one specialist from there. But when you lose even one person it is significant based on the skill set[s] that they brought,” said Miller.

“Based on the nature of what we do, we must remain positive. We are very accustomed to trying to find solutions to the challenges that we face, and therefore each day brings its own challenges, but I am fortunate enough to have a very dedicated team that helps us to find solutions so we press on day to day and deal with the circumstances that present to us,” added Miller.

MILLER…the Cubans brought largely specialist skills to our country (Photo: Kasey Williams)

BENT… pointed out that the areas in which specialists are needed include the radiology and nephrology departments at Mandeville Regional Hospital(Photo: Kasey Williams)