IN JAMAICA: Health sector faces lockdown over shift system for doctors.... Shift system ill-conceived, says JMDA.... According to the ministry, the shift system — set to take effect on July 1 — is expected to improve efficiency at public health facilities.

BY KIMBERLEY HIBBERT Observer staff reporter hibbertk@jamaicaobserver.com  Friday, May 01, 2015  
THE public health-care system faces the threat of a lockdown if the Ministry of Health goes ahead with the planned implementation of a shift work system to which doctors are opposed.
01
Health sector faces lockdown over shift system for doctors
According to the ministry, the shift system — set to take effect on July 1 — is expected to improve efficiency at public health facilities.
However, it would result in significantly reduced salaries for doctors, for whom overtime work is a major source of income.
In a letter addressed to the permanent secretary in the health ministry on Tuesday, the Jamaica Medical Doctors Association (JMDA) said that it plans to withdraw from the task force to examine how best the shift system could work and that, if it is implemented, only emergency care will be guaranteed at public health facilities.
Permanent secretary in the ministry Dr Kevin Harvey told the Jamaica Observer on Wednesday that, while there have been conversations surrounding the possibility of an implementation of a shift system, he could comment no further.
"I can't comment on that. No shift system is being implemented. What we're doing is exploring the possibility of it, but nothing is being implemented," Dr Harvey insisted.
However, the letter from JMDA President Dr Alfred Dawes to the ministry was explicit.
"If on July 1, 2015 you insist on implementation of this dangerous plan, we cannot guarantee that there will be any doctor available for services outside of emergency care," Dr Dawes said in the letter, a copy of which was obtained by the Observer.
The Princess Margaret Hospital on the
outskirts of Morant Bay, St Thomas.
Dr Dawes, in his letter, said that while the lobby group remains concerned about the poor state of Jamaica's public health system, submissions they have made on how to improve the delivery of health care locally have been ignored.
"We have made submissions on how to improve the delivery of health care, both verbally and in writing, to the permanent secretaries and ministers of health of various administrations. These concerns and suggestions have largely been ignored, much to the detriment of the population whom we serve," Dr Dawes stated.
He added that the JMDA had welcomed an invitation to be a part of the task force to examine the shift system and how it could be implemented to improve the delivery of health care in the public system, but rapped the task force as being convened to merely "rubber-stamp an ill-conceived plan" to implement the shift system in hospitals. more 

No comments:

Post a Comment