KINGSTON, Jamaica - Health & Wellness Minister, Dr. Christopher Tufton is in the Philippines, pursuing a partnership to boost Jamaica’s human resources for health.
Dr. Christopher TuftonHis visit follows that of Dr. Teodoro Herbosa, Secretary of Health for the Philippines, who travelled to Kingston in January to sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to collaborate on the health workforce in both countries.
“Since arriving in the Philippines, we have had a series of bilateral discussions involving my team and his to work out the details of a training programme between the two countries for specialist nurses,” Tufton said.
“The idea is to have Jamaican specialist nurses trained remotely and then to have our trainees coming on rotation to hospitals here (in the Philippines).
“We are also working through possibilities for healthcare workers from the Philippines coming to work in Jamaica as well as to have faculty members from the Philippines do training in Jamaica,” he added.
Jamaica and the Philippines signed the MoU on health cooperation during the first-ever Health & Wellness Career Expo and Employment Fair, hosted by the Ministry of Health & Wellness in collaboration with the Ministry of Education, Skills, Youth and Information.
“By pooling our expertise and resources, we can offer better training and ensure an equitable distribution of healthcare professionals,” Dr. Tufton said then.
The MoU provides for faculty or trainer exchanges, as well as training and certification of health professionals. It also allows for capacity-building and knowledge sharing in biotechnology, medical equipment, epidemiology and healthcare management; and exchange visits for specialist nurses and other professionals.
The efforts to partner on the health workforce in the two countries come as Jamaica and other small island developing states face challenges with their human resources for health. Those challenges include competition to retain health workers, including nurses, who are routinely recruited by oversees employers from the developed world, the ministry here said.
