Opposition Spokesman on Health, Dr. Alfred Dawes, is calling for an audit to establish the extent of working ventilators in the country.
He’s responding to a rebuttal by Health Minister, Dr. Christopher Tufton, who challenged his previous claim that over a hundred ventilators donated to Jamaica were unaccounted for.
Speaking at a press conference on Wednesday, Dr. Dawes questioned what he described as the fuzzy math of the Ministry of Health.
Chevon Campbell tells us more.
The Opposition Spokesman on Health had previously made the claim that approximately one-hundred ventilators could not be accounted for after they’d been generously donated to Jamaica during the COVID-19 pandemic.
It’s a claim that the health minister refuted the next day.
Dr. Christopher Tufton says all ventilators donated to the Government of Jamaica as part of the country’s COVID-19 response are accounted for and deployed across its facilities islandwide.
He promised to provide an inventory of the machines.
But Dr. Alfred Dawes believes that response ignores the functional state of the instruments.
A ventilator is a type of breathing apparatus, a class of medical technology that provides mechanical ventilation by moving breathable air into and out of the lungs.
They’re used in circumstances where an individual is unable to breathe unassisted.
The promised inventory came just days later via a statement from the health ministry.
It said six of the machines were distributed to the Southern Regional Health Authority, while 8 went to the Western Regional Authority and 23 to the South East Regional Health Authority.
According to the ministry, the donations added to the number of existing ventilators in the public health system, bringing the total in use to more than 100.
But Dr. Dawes is questioning how many of the ventilators and other critical care machines are in operational working condition across the health sector.
Dr. Dawes is also dismissing suggestions that his concerns are an attempt at political gamesmanship.
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