KINGSTON, Jamaica – The Jamaica government has signed a multi-million dollar contract with C&W Jamaica Limited to manage the private network services for the public health system.
Health and Wellness Minister Dr. Christopher Tufton (Right) and CW Jamaica Limited vice president Stephen price at the signing ceremony. (Photo by Nicholas Nunes)A government statement said that through the information and communications technology (ICT) infrastructure project, more than 100 health facilities will benefit under the US$8.43-million initiative which aims to enhance the delivery of healthcare in the country. It said that the project falls under the Health Systems Strengthening Program, which is a partnership involving the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).
Health and Wellness Minister, Dr. Christopher Tufton, who signed the agreement with telecommunication company’s vice president and general manager, Stephen Price, said the project will make a fundamental shift in the delivery of service to patients in the country.
“This ICT infrastructure project, as part of the Health System Strengthening Program, is timely. The value of this project is US$8.43 million, and the project is intended to look at storage, hardware site, servers, backups, disaster recovery as well as network and workstation, cybersecurity and help-desk support.
“It’s going to be locating and networking 105 health centers and/or hospitals…we are going in phases, but this is sufficiently significant to make a difference, to have an impact, to demonstrate a pivoting for the better, the policies and programs that we have to implement,” he added.
Tufton said that the “game-changing” build out is expected to reduce the long waits at the country’s public health infrastructure and that it will also improve access to health information and will give the medical team greater access to the patient’s health records, in a bid to improve chronic disease management.
Tufton said that 70 per cent of deaths in Jamaica are attributed to a lifestyle disease.
Price said under the agreement, his company will be implementing the underlying infrastructure that facilitates the platforms for telehealth services.
“This includes our multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) network, local area network, wide area network, security solutions as well as end-user devices such as medical grade laptops, tablets, desktops and two data centers.
“C&W Business Jamaica will deliver and install and manage this process over the next 36 months in partnership with e-Gov as we collaborate to transform our health sector,” Price added.
The Health Systems Strengthening Program aims to boost the island’s capacity to address the scourge of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and the challenges of communicable illnesses.
