Health Ministry to Issue Commitment Letters for 436 Recipients of Dr. Barry Wint Memorial Scholarship

The Ministry of Health and Wellness will be issuing commitment letters to tertiary institutions, with the next few days, for 436 recipients of the Dr. Barry Wint Memorial Scholarship.

Portfolio Minister, Dr. the Hon. Chritopher Tufton, made the disclosure at a media briefing at the Iberostar Resort in St. James on Wednesday (October 9).

He noted that the students, out of a total of 604 applicants, have successfully progressed through the vetting process conducted by the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service, which included completing the necessary documentation.

Their names have been forwarded to the Health Ministry for final processing.

“So, over the next few days, we should see a list sent to the [educational] institutions and letters provided,” he noted.

“So, I want to just encourage those students not to panic and that the processing will be completed in short order, and they should be fine,” he said.

The Dr. Barry Wint Memorial Scholarship aims to increase the cadre of Jamaican healthcare workers and bolster the health sector.

The scholarship award is funded through the Consolidated Fund, with $500 million allocated annually over a five-year period totalling $2.5 billion.

Dr. Tufton urged the remaining applicants who have not yet completed their documentation to do some promptly.

He said he is aware that some applicants are having difficulties securing the required guarantors, which is part of the bonding arrangement to ensure that scholarship recipients fulfil their obligation to work in the public health system.

“Having said that, however, the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service, and the Ministry of Health and Wellness have exercised some flexibility on the number of guarantors, and we now would encourage the remaining number of persons to come in and to go to the Finance Ministry to fill out their [documents]. We have extended the deadline,” Dr. Tufton said.

The Dr. Barry Wint Memorial Scholarship is designed as a developmental programme, offering grants to Jamaicans with the contractual agreement that they will contribute to the public health system upon completing their studies.

This approach aims to address both current and future gaps in Jamaica’s healthcare workforce.