More Jamaicans Visiting Clinics Than Hospitals

More Jamaicans are taking advantage of the primary healthcare system with a greater number of visits to clinics than hospitals in 2024, says Minister of Health and Wellness, Dr. the Hon. Christopher Tufton.

Dr. Tufton informed that over the last year, the public health system saw some 3,046,946 visits – 1,892,106 to health centres and 1,154,840 to hospitals.

“This is an important policy success. There were approximately 300,000 more visits to health centres and 250,000 less visits to hospitals in 2024. This is so because our health centres have benefited significantly from improvements in infrastructure, added services and better service delivery,” he said.

The Minister was making his contribution to the 2025/26 sectoral debate in the House of Representatives on Tuesday (June 10).

Dr. Tufton noted that the Government has invested in community healthcare and the people are receiving the benefits of this improved service.

He informed that in 2024, a total of 63,562 surgeries were performed, comprising 15,392 major surgeries, 11,743 minor surgeries, 7,120 day surgeries and 29,301 minor outpatient surgeries.

In addition, some 10,097,052 lab tests were done – 9,651,083 in hospitals and 445,969 in health centres; and 703,780 diagnostic (imaging) tests were conducted.

The Minister further told the House that there were 511,791 visits to accident and emergency.

“These are not just numbers; these are people who benefited from the system in 2024. Together, more than 2,400 doctors, some 5,500 nurses, 2,000-plus community health aides, more than 1,900 paramedical and allied healthcare workers, as well as our administrator, and contractors of services like catering, cleaning and portering, security personnel, direct and indirect staff, work daily to get the job done,” Dr. Tufton said.