St Thomas health centres upgraded

The health centres in Port Morant and Arcadia, both in St Thomas, have been upgraded under 'Operation Refresh'.

A programme by the Ministry of Health and Wellness, Operation Refresh has expended $31 million on upgrading the Port Morant centre, which supports roughly 34,000 residents, and $6 million on the Arcadia centre, serving 2,000 residents. Health Minister Dr Christopher Tufton, delivering the main address at the reopening ceremony at Port Morant on Thursday, underscored the significance of the programme in transforming public health in Jamaica.

"Primary healthcare is the foundation of public health, and it has to start there, not at the hospital. We have committed ourselves, as a Government, to ensuring that every health centre in Jamaica that serves people does so in a way that is humane," Tufton said.

"[This starts] with the environment in which they (members of the public) go, the seating, the bathroom, the water ... the environment where the doctors sit, so the doctors and nurses are comfortable too, and then we try to bring it together to say we want a kinder interaction that makes the patient more comfortable in that setting," he added.

Tufton revealed that through the $1-billion Operation Refresh, the Government will be refreshing "five or six health centres every month" for the next 18 months. A facility in Malvern, St Elizabeth, was scheduled to be reopened this weekend, and another in Yallahs, St Thomas, in two weeks. Tufton urged members of staff at the reopened facilities to use the upgrades to deliver better service.

"We are putting in place the resources, you put in place the attitude, the approach and we will see better days ahead in public health," Tufton said.