ST JAMES, Jamaica – The Government is rethinking its earlier decision to file civil suits against individuals who abandon relatives at health facilities.

Health and Wellness Minister, Dr Christopher Tufton, told the media in St James on Tuesday that action being taken was put on hold after the State received legal advice.

“We did prepare some case files, but we have since engaged in some conversations with the attorney general’s department and have gotten some advice which we will have to rethink and reconsider in terms of what the approach is. But from that advice on consultation, we will determine a course of action in the year,” stated Tufton.

In November of last year, the minister told the House of Representatives that these civil suits would have been the precursor to identifying the way forward in a bid to solve a long-standing problem.

“The intention is to test these cases to see what the courts’ opinion of this particular situation is likely to be, and from that opinion, we’ll explore, where possible, an adjustment in policy or law to hold those persons more accountable,” Tufton told the House then.

Some family members abandon relatives in State-run hospitals during the Yuletide season and beyond, sometimes in a bid to participate in holiday festivities.

“It places a lot of strain on the hospital system because these persons ultimately become social cases, and because of the other mitigating factors,” stated Tufton.

He said accident and emergency cases that normally require hospitalisation surge during the Yuletide season and, as a result, hospitals would normally have to take measures to free up space.

“How we mitigate against that, we normally release as many persons as possible who don’t need to be in a hospital. Doctors and nurses clearly have to be on standby for emergency cases and we try to manage that also through public education by discouraging persons from dropping their family members off so that we end up taking care of them,” the Minister said.

He noted that while such measures do not work all the time, “we hope it will work this season. We do see a lot of activities being planned. The team themselves are planning and anticipating what may occur but clearly, our hope is that things will go smoothly.”

A year ago, there were some 174 social cases in hospitals across the country.