Health Minister not opposed to recruiting nurses from overseas

Minister of Health and Wellness, Dr the Honorable Christopher Tufton, says he is not opposed to recruiting from overseas to fill the nursing vacancies within the health sector.

He was responding to questions posed by Member of Parliament for St Mary Central, Dr Morais Guy, on whether the Government would consider employing nurses from the Philippines to fill the gaps existing within the sector.

The Minister's response came during the sitting of the House of Representatives on Tuesday (February 11).

On average, some 500 nurses per year have left the system since 2018, including specialist nurses.

"We want to engage our people first even before we seek to encourage and invite others to come in, but I don't think we can leave that off the table either, to be totally frank. As you know, we have over 300 Cuban healthcare workers here in Jamaica and we do have from other nationalities," Tufton said.

"To fill the immediate gaps, if we can't source locally, we have to explore other options, and I think the Philippines is a worthy partner," he added.

A Memorandum of Understanding was recently signed between the Philippines and the Ministry of Health and Wellness, providing for faculty exchanges, as well as specialist training and knowledge and experience sharing in the areas of biotechnology, epidemiology, and healthcare management, among others.

"We're building out hospitals now, which will give us more clinical rotation space. The Philippines has over 400 hospitals for the 100-plus million population. They have enough space to allow for some clinical rotation, so our people can go there as well as access... their faculty, either remotely or in person. So, that's the first idea," Tufton said.

- JIS

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