PM orders checks on public hospitals
PRIME Minister Portia Simpson Miller has called for checks to be done on public hospital services, particularly those affecting the most vulnerable patients, to inform the Cabinet where there are failures.
Minister of Information and Development Senator Colin Campbell, in informing the press of the decision coming out of yesterday’s weekly Cabinet meeting, said the prime minister instructed that, “if there is any issue at all pertaining to the proper delivery of the services, it should be immediately highlighted and brought to the attention of the Cabinet”.
Campbell said the case of Caroline Edwards-Brown, the 41-year-old mother who lost her baby recently at the Victoria Jubilee Hospital (VJH), as well as the problems with the sterilisation equipment and the elevators at the same hospital, were also discussed by the cabinet.
“We have also received from the Ministry of Health, the programme of activities to return some of the concerns (at the Victoria Jubilee Hospital) back to normality, particularly the issue of the sterilisation equipment, the autoclaves. The ministry is reporting that between procurement and repairs, they expect the situation to be normlised in about four weeks,” Campbell told the post-Cabinet briefing at Jamaica House.