Compassionate Care Programme for More Hospitals

The Ministry of Health’s Compassionate Care Programme is to be expanded to 12 other hospitals across the country this year.

This was disclosed by Portfolio Minister, Dr. the Hon. Christopher Tufton, during his contribution to the 2018/19 Sectoral Debate in the House of Representatives on June 5.

“Part of the challenge that we face in the public sector is that we have great doctors and nurses [and] we deliver good care, but more often than not, the missing component is delivering clinical care with compassion, delivering care in a manner that projects the customer service component, the empathy,” Dr. Tufton said.

“We are going into 12 hospitals this year improving the facilities, training front-line staff and preparing our clinical team to recognise and to empathise with patients as we treat with them,” he added.

A Compassionate Care and Volunteerism Programme was launched recently, and a policy was developed and approved by Cabinet to guide this process.

The initiative aims to, in the first instance, enhance the waiting areas in hospitals, including improving the quality of critical infrastructure like bathrooms; train front-line staff in basic customer service for the hospital setting; recruit and structure volunteer support for patient care in health facilities; and establish a patient comment infrastructure to lodge complaints, suggestions or commendations.

So far, the Ministry has trained over 60 front-line staff at the Kingston Public and Victoria Jubilee hospitals. The programme was officially launched at the Victoria Jubilee Hospital in March 2018.