Wed | Feb 4, 2026

Tufton mobilises field hospitals to avert health crisis after Melissa devastation

Published:Friday | October 31, 2025 | 5:13 PM
Dr Christopher Tufton, Minister of Health and Wellness.
Dr Christopher Tufton, Minister of Health and Wellness.

Health Minister Dr Christopher Tufton says the Government is moving to deploy field hospitals across five western parishes after extensive damage to key medical facilities from Hurricane Melissa.

Tufton gave the update following a tour of hospitals in Westmoreland, Trelawny, Hanover, St James and St Elizabeth.

The minister says public health teams are also being mobilised to address food safety, vector control, and sanitation risks as recovery efforts intensify.

General Surgeon at the Savanna-la-Mar Hospital in Westmoreland Dr Lincoln Cox, has made an urgent appeal for medical assistance, warning of a grave situation marked by depleted sterile supplies, a critically low blood supply, failing communications, exhausted staff, and diabetic patients now at risk of losing life and limbs.

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