Fray: Hospitals can’t endure doctors’ industrial action past 24 hours
Published:Thursday | July 1, 2021 | 3:08 PM
Christopher Thomas, Gleaner Writer
Clinical coordinator at the Western Regional Health Authority, Dr Delroy Fray, is warning that today's industrial action by junior doctors will adversely affect the region's ability to handle medical cases if the matter is not resolved within 24 hours.
READ: More junior doctors take industrial action
“We were advised by the junior doctors that they are on sickout. The junior doctors are the major part of the workforce at the hospitals, and that is going to affect our activities…we are hoping this will not last longer than 24 hours because it is not possible that the consultants can carry that load for longer than 24 hours, so we are hoping that by this evening it will be resolved,” Fray told The Gleaner.
According to him, the Cornwall Regional Hospital (CRH) in Montego Bay, St James is the worst affected facility in the region, with the Savanna-la-Mar Hospital in Westmoreland operating at 50 percent staff capacity.
By contrast, the Noel Holmes Hospital in Hanover and the Falmouth Hospital in Trelawny are operating at full capacity.
“At the CRH, we have looked at our consultant staff and we have allotted them to cover emergencies as best as possible, so that would deal with the accident and emergency ward. That forced us to curtail much of our clinic activities in order to function at that level,” said Fray.
“Noel Holmes and Falmouth hospitals are coping very well and are working at more or less full capacity, which means they had their staff turn up to work. Savanna-la-Mar is at 50 percent capacity of their juniors, and they have scaled down to deal only with emergencies as well.”
Junior doctors across Jamaica have walked off the job in protest over working hours and the non-renewal of the contracts of 147 colleagues.
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