Durrant Pate/Contributor

The Ministry of Health and Wellness has beefed up the cadre of medical staff across the island’s public health facilities, particularly over the past 18 months.

Of note, there has been a 30 per cent increase in doctors in primary care in keeping with the reform of primary health care, moving from 338 in 2023 to 432 in 2025. In addition, the ministry has established 1,495 posts for registered nurses and 97 for midwives.

Health Minister Dr Christopher Tufton, in his Sectoral Debate presentation, told Parliament that the ministry also created 1,079 posts for community health aides (CHAs), who are conducting more home visits, supporting seniors and pregnant women, providing screening, and offering basic psychosocial support under the supervision of public health nurses.

The number of public health inspector posts has also been increased, from 460 to 862, with the addition of 405 posts in 2022.

Seventy new vector control posts were also added in 2022. He bragged that Jamaica’s health system is better off now than in 2015 under the previous People’s National Party (PNP) government.

Physical and ICT upgrades

He told fellow Members of Parliament that the incumbent administration is improving the physical and information, communication and technology (ICT) infrastructure at health centres across the island. The most significant buildout is taking place through a collaboration among the Government of Jamaica (GOJ), the Inter-American Development Bank and the European Union with the implementation of the Health Systems Strengthening Programme.

Under this programme, the government is building out 13 health centres and hospitals, equipping them with fully digitised patient records and modern diagnostics machinery.

These facilities, Minister Tufton announced, will see new services and expanded staff for the communities they serve.

More money for health

Back in 2016/17, the budget for capital projects in health amounted to J$1.88 billion, while the staffing budget was J$31.12 billion. Still, during this 2025/26 fiscal year, the health budget for capital projects has rocketed to J$10.18 billion, a more than fivefold increase from 2015. During the last fiscal year 2023/2024, the budget was J$6.93 billion. The staffing budget now stands at J$93.77 billion, up from J$33.82 billion in 2016/17.

Tufton criticised the Opposition for conveniently ignoring the current plans being implemented to improve the system after decades of neglect.

“It’s a self-serving, deceptive and dishonest narrative. I urge us to cast our minds back to 2015, and just look at how they left the health system; simply put – BROKEN,” Tufton asserted.

He argued, “There can be no question that this administration is making a sincere and tangible attempt to improve our public health services and certainly better than any attempt before 2015. There are still
challenges, but we are better off than we were back in 2015. We must stay the course!”