Westmoreland short of 250 doctors, says councillor
Published:Tuesday | July 13, 2021 | 12:09 AMAlbert Ferguson/Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
Westmoreland’s shortage of medical doctors has been described as a crisis, with a vocal municipal councillor charging that the parish is short of 250 physicians.
Citing that Westmoreland had a population of approximately 150,000, Councillor Cebert McFarlane said that the parish was operating outside the scope of the international benchmark of 240 doctors for 100,000 people.
“The parish is currently operating with 107 doctors, covering primary and secondary healthcare, along with those in private practice,” McFarlane, who represents the Leamington division, said at Thursday’s monthly meeting of the Westmoreland Municipal Corporation.
McFarlane said that residents in Dundee, Ashton, and Belvedere had to travel up to 25 miles to find a doctor when they fell sick.
Two weeks ago, junior doctors called in sick in an islandwide protest centred on the non-renewal of the contracts of more than 140 doctors. Since then, 36 of the doctors were given employment contracts.
Subsequent to the stand-off, Chief Medical Officer Dr Jacquiline Bisasor-McKenzie said there was a limit to the number of prospective doctors who could be observed for intership.
“As The University of the West Indies puts out more and more graduates, and we have graduates from other medical schools both in country and outside the country that apply to do internship within our hospitals, there is a limit to the number of persons we can take for internship, but persons are expected to complete their internship to get full registration,” said Bisasor-McKenzie.
Meanwhile, following the protest, Jamaica Medical Doctors’ Association President Dr Mindi Fitz-Henley said that prospective doctors were having second thoughts about studying medicine locally because of uncertainty of tenure.
However, McFarlane has blamed health authorities for failing to reassess the establishment numbers for decades to capture the real needs of the public health sector.
“I realise that from the 1960s we have not updated the various positions in the medical field, whether doctors or public health inspectors, so you will never have enough doctors or public health inspectors,” said McFarlane.
“So as the local board of health, we must recognise that our parish is in serious condition when it comes to medical services, especially with doctors. We have a serious undersupply of doctors in Westmoreland.”