Health Workers Lauded for Contribution to Sector

Minister of Health, John Junor has lauded workers in the health sector for their high quality of work and dedication to duty.

He however pointed to areas within the sector that needed an intensification of effort.

“Our maternal mortality rate is still unsatisfactory at 112 deaths per 100,000. HIV/AIDS and our chronic diseases situation continue to pose very serious challenges to our health”, he stated.

Minister Junor was addressing the 31st annual conference of the Jamaica Enrolled Nurses Association held at the Sunset Beach Resort and Spa in St. James on October 27.

He said that the nurses were ideally placed to correct shortcomings in the sector and called on the professionals to provide the public with information on what constituted good health and how to develop and maintain healthy lifestyles.

The Health Minister also urged them to become more engaged in the fight against HIV/AIDS, noting that the disease represented a real threat to the country’s development.

He further encouraged the health professionals to educate the public on government’s health strategy, as it related to the treatment of mental health patients and the rationalization of the delivery of health services.

He noted that, “these are areas that are calling for changes in approach, that are not being readily appreciated, and properly sold to the general public, by workers in the health sector.”

“We need to stop and to examine whether we are offering the right type of care, from the right place. So, we are going to have to look at it, and very often, our health personnel are some of the people who lead the opposition to any re-examination or changes to where we deliver services from”, the Health Minister stated.