Health Ministry to do 1,000 additional surgeries this year
The Ministry of Health & Wellness is introducing a new project, CODE CARE, to further improve wait times for elective surgeries, including for cataracts as well as oral and sinus cancers.
“Since March 2020, many hospitals have had to suspend the normal processing of elective surgeries, which has resulted in the extension of the length of time that persons wait for these operations, sometimes up to two years,” Minister of Health Wellness, Dr. Christopher Tufton told Parliament during his Sectoral presentation yesterday (May 3, 2022).
“One can only imagine the pain and suffering that those Jamaicans have to bear waiting for a procedure but due to the COVID-19 priorities cannot get this procedure done,” he added.
The introduction of CODE CARE, the Minister said, should ease that stress.
“Our special intervention this year, CODE CARE, will seek to do an additional 1,000 surgeries over the next 10 months to clear up most, if not all backlogs,” Dr. Tufton said.
To reach that goal, he said that the Ministry would work with the Diaspora of healthcare professionals who visit Jamaica for special surgery sessions to provide more efficient arrangements and access to hospital facilities and target elective surgeries with the longest wait. Those surgeries include for arthroplasty, undescended testis and pterygium.
“We will do this in conjunction with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade and our missions overseas, as well as through our National Healthcare Enhancement Foundation,” the Minister explained.
Also forming a part of the strategy in the provision of approximately $300 Million to repair and, where necessary, maintain the island’s operating theatres “to operate more efficiently and longer hours to drive more throughput”.
This is in addition to partnering with private sector health facilities to provide surgery and recovery spaces to augment existing facilities.
“Many will say that long waits for elective surgeries in health facilities is not a new phenomenon nor is it promulgated by the advent of COVID-19. This is true. However, COVID-19 has exacerbated the problem to a level where an immediate intervention must be implemented,” the Minister said.
“As we build out the health facilities and expand the capacities of our major hospitals, we will begin to see the reduction in many of these challenges. As we build out our resilience pathway, as outlined in the Vision for Health 2030 ten-year strategic plan, we will also be able to provide greater access and a wider range of services to the Jamaican people,” he added.