Dialysis Technicians to be Trained

In response to the shortage of health technicians, which currently exists, the Government will be moving swiftly to beef up the sector with the introduction of a training programme, which will see some 40 dialysis and nurse technicians being trained this September.
This announcement was made by Minister of Health, Hon. Rudyard Spencer, at the recent launch of the ‘Friends of the Clarendon Health Services’, at the Halse Hall Great House in the parish.
“There is nothing shorter in Jamaica than dialysis technicians. We can’t find enough of them, and so, finally, we’ll cross the hurdle. We’ll get the University of Technology (UTech) to come and train them in our own Lionel Town Hospital. I am pleased to tell you that come September morning, classes will be held at the Lionel Town Hospital. We are going to train health technicians. First of all, we are going to train dialysis technicians and we are going to train nurse technicians,” he said.
He informed that the training programme would be done as a joint venture between UTech and the Ministry of Health. Individuals will be trained in nine-month phases, with the first six months taking place in a classroom setting, while a three-month internship period will be done in various hospitals.
The Minister insisted that while the economic challenges are being felt in all areas, the health of the nation remains top priority, and the Government is pumping all the necessary resources into the sector to ensure that it is not compromised.
“Things are tough, the budget has contracted, but the health service is one area out of three that was given an expanded budget. So, the Government is paying very serious attention and very special attention to the care of the nation,” he stressed.