ST JAMES, Jamaica — Health and Wellness Minister Dr Christopher Tufton has revealed that a formal signing ceremony for the recently introduced accountability framework is scheduled for this Friday at 11:30 am.

The comprehensive framework, designed to address long-standing administrative shortcomings and procurement bottlenecks, is expected to be signed by all four regional health authorities across the island.

“I’m signing that document with all the regional authorities. And it has about five components that are going to require certain levels of accountability, otherwise people will have to face the consequences,” stated Tufton.

The minister was responding to a question from a member of the diaspora community during the 11th Biennial Jamaica Diaspora Conference being held at the Montego Bay Convention Centre on Tuesday afternoon.

The diaspora member wanted to know what steps are being taken to ensure that healthcare workers are trained, equipped, and supported to deliver high-quality care that is needed to see outcomes in the health sector.

His question was in the context of concerns that the “old attitudes” of some staff might persist despite the state-of-the-art hospitals currently being constructed or rehabilitated across the island.

Tufton, who met with the Western Regional Health Authority (WRHA) board — which oversees public health centres and hospitals in Trelawny, St James, Hanover, and Westmoreland — on Tuesday, acknowledged the validity of the concern.

“I told them that we have a challenge, and I’ve said it publicly and I know I offend some people. We have a leadership challenge and we have a management challenge, and the two are different,” stated Tufton.

“Leadership is about vision, it’s about motivating people, getting the job done. Management is about holding people accountable for their roles and responsibilities. While we value the talent and skills that exist within the fraternity of health — many are in demand globally because of their expertise — I have found in the decade of my own stewardship that we lack empathy. We do not demonstrate the empathy that is required in the administration of care, not sufficiently,” added the minister.

Tufton said the challenges in the health sector is systematic rather than financial.

“I’m in this business long enough that I’m not looking for popularity anymore. I really am not. I just want to get the job done. The challenge is that the people right now are the biggest challenge in the health system. It’s not a lack of money. The Government has spent billions of dollars in terms of equipment, putting in equipment, building out health facilities,” argued Tufton.

“Yes, we have a space problem and we’re building and adding more. But if we don’t manage the triage system properly, if we don’t speak to people with a level of respect and show them empathy and understanding, then they are going to be irate and the healing process is not going to happen, and the perceptions are going to linger that we have a heartless health system despite the fact that we’re doing this. So we’re going to need leadership, which means training, recruiting new people,” explained Tufton.

“That’s why we sign MOUs with the Philippines, with Nigeria, with Ghana — I was in Ghana three weeks ago — [and] India. That’s why we’re recruiting back nurses from the diaspora, bringing them back in, because I do believe we need to embed in the existing infrastructure agents of change to try to do things differently while holding those in the system accountable,” added Tufton.

As a part of addressing the issue, the minister said training and retraining are being carried out.

— Anthony Lewis