Health Ministry Establishes International Recruitment Unit

An international recruitment unit has been established to manage the cross-border arrangements to fill vacancies in the health sector and boost human resources.

Making the announcement during his contribution to the 2026/27 Sectoral Debate in the House of Representatives on May 12, Minister of Health and Wellness, Dr. the Hon. Christopher Tufton, informed that establishment of the unit has been approved by Cabinet.

“The future of human resources for health for Jamaica to address the sick profile of our population is going to be multicultural and it’s going to have to be collaborative across borders because even with the expansion of capacity as we are doing, with the expansion of the Kingston School of Nursing and training facility, the reality is, the mobility of healthcare workers makes it very difficult and the demand for our population makes it very difficult,” he said.

He further noted that human resources for health is a major challenge, adding that there are critical areas of specialisation that are needed to replace or to fill vacancies in areas such as oncology, paediatric, nephrology, psychiatry, burn unit and cardiology.

Dr. Tufton added that the Ministry is taking a multi-pronged approach to address the issue of human resources for health.

He said more than 100 specialist nurses are being trained and will be deployed this year. He added that through the Barry Wint Memorial Development Scholarship, 48 nurses and 33 doctors will fill posts this year.

“The diaspora recruitment will continue, interviews are now taking place, and over the last month, we signed MOUs (Memoranda of Understanding) with India, Nigeria and Ghana, which will see both collaboration in training but also recruitment of those nationalities where needed to come to Jamaica,” he said.