ANNOTTO BAY, St Mary – With the hospital already grappling with a shortage of doctors, the management of Annotto Bay Hospital on Friday said they were operating in emergency mode as many junior doctors across the country withdrew their services.

Chief executive officer Dale Brown told the Jamaica Observer that while the hospital had activated its contingency plan, deploying consultants and senior medical officers to critical areas, the strain was beginning to show.

“We have the MO4s [senior doctors] out manning the areas to ensure that we do not have any deaths. A few junior doctors turned up, so the amount of persons that turned up we have to utilise them to man areas in case of an emergency,” Brown explained.

He noted that routine clinics were scaled back, with only critical cases being seen. Other appointments were rescheduled. The CEO said the industrial action could not have come at a worse time as the Type C hospital was already understaffed. Annotto Bay Hospital is the main referral medical facility for the eastern parishes of St Mary, Portland and St Ann. Staff say they are bracing for an influx of emergencies while running on a skeleton crew.

The strike is expected to last one day as, in a press release on Friday, Jamaica Medical Doctors Association (JMDA) President Dr Jubilee Brown said the body “cannot guarantee normalcy from 8 am on Friday, October 2, 2026 to 8 am on Saturday, October 3, 2026.

Brown warned that if it goes beyond that, Annotto Bay Hospital’s ability to cope will be severely tested.

“It will have a negative impact on the hospital. However, we will still be able to manage emergencies. The amount of people we have will also have burnout and will require at least some time to pause. Basically, the emergency mode persons are in overdrive,” he said.

“You have to plan just in case it would be prolonged. We will be able to man the emergencies but we do not know how long we can hold out in doing such,” Brown added.

— Ingrid Henry