THE Government will be spending a total of $1.19 billion on its CODE CARE programme, which is designed to reduce wait time for elective surgeries.

Of this amount, $279 million will be spent on nursing missions, and $153.92 million on overtime payments to staff, Minister of Health and Wellness Dr Christopher Tufton told Parliament in responding to questions posed by Opposition spokesman on health, Dr Morais Guy on Tuesday.

CODE CARE aims to further improve wait times for a wide range of elective surgeries, including those for cataracts as well as oral and sinus cancers.

Minister Tufton, who had announced the programme in his sectoral presentation in May this year, had to defend Government’s decision to bring in nurses from the diaspora to help clear the backlog of elective surgeries. Critics had said that infrastructure including hospital theatres and equipment were more a need than personnel.

However, Tufton said at the time that CODE CARE was not only focused on staff recruitment but would have a number of different components. These include rehabilitation of operating theatres, on which $80 million will be spent; a public-private partnership for use of private operating theatres — $200 million; and the procurement of surgical equipment and supplies equipment — $223.59 million.

The remaining components entail a special project management segment that will cost $23.58 million; and communications, which is $59 million.

In the meantime, the minister said Government has entered into contracts with three private entities under the public-private component of the programme

They are the Montego Bay Hospital and Urology Centre for $23 million; Hospiten for $23 million and GWest Corporation — $23 million.

“These are all entities in western Jamaica. We are now negotiating for entities on this side [Corporate Area] of the island,” he said Tuesday.

Five prostate surgeries were done under the public-private partnership component of the programme in early October. Approximately 200 surgeries including hernia and hysterectomy are to be completed in the first instance in keeping with this component.

CODE CARE is designed to reduce wait time for elective surgeries to less than 180 days and to increase the number of surgeries conducted over the same period by at least 80 per cent, targeting about 2,000 surgeries over a 12-month period.

In his sectoral debate presentation, Tufton said that 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.

The health minister has been leading a series of discussions with members of the Jamaican Diaspora in the United States to recruit medical staff for CODE CARE. The ministry is also to recruit personnel from Canada and the United Kingdom for the programme.

Under CODE CARE, the ministry will work with health-care professionals in the diaspora 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 arthroplasty, undescended testis, and pterygium.

Recruited nurses will be provided with air and ground transportation, accommodation, and per diem for the duration of their stay in Jamaica. These are in addition to insurance for work in the various facilities and their time in the country; Jamaica Nursing Council Certification; and fee waivers.

The health minister has sought to assure members of the medical profession that they need not fear that the imported nurses will displace them.