Several doctors are expected in the island in a few days to fill vacancies at the May Pen Hospital in Clarendon.

Last week, operations at the hospital deteriorated due to a shortage in medical staff, forcing the hospital to only accept emergency cases.

Three Jamaican doctors started working at the institution yester-day and eight others, including some from the United States, Cuba and India, are expected to be at work by weekend.

"We have in place certain contingencies and we are going to import some doctors and if the region will fast-track their deploy-ment, then we should have a full staff in a matter of days," said Dr. Winston Dawes, senior medical officer at the hospital.

Dr. Dawes said conditions at the hospital had been gradually improving and should be back to normal soon.

"We have now got these doctors so we are now running a full casualty (department). We still are short of interns but, hopefully, we should get in some applications today (Monday) and the people have committed themselves to cutting through the bureaucracy ... to get the doctors in place will," he said.