The first contract between Marketing Me and the Government of Jamaica was awarded on October 27, 2017. That contract was to the National Youth Service for Marketing Services for a total consideration of $1.474
Four contracts to the company were awarded in 2017 to total sum of $9.17m .
In 2018 I found just a single contract to the Western regional Health Authority for Jamaica moves and that was for a total of $1.5m
In 2019 the records revealed a total of 9 contracts valued at $11.2m
in 2020 the records revealed a total of 2 contracts up to March 2020, however it was noted that figures were not available for one of the two contracts
If there are more contracts these were not available at the Integrity Commission up to March 2020.
The gleaner reported the above on the date stated, which appears to suggest that the health sector is short of Doctors and these Doctors cannot be employed due to budgetary constraints.
I want to examine this on two fronts with knowledge of how the employment practices works in the public sector and the issues that normally arise in audit reports on employment breaches.
The Ministry has reported it has spent up to early July close to $3.9b on covid related expenses and such large expenditure in such a short space of time, would definitely warrant an audit from the AG Dept.
How often have we seen the following from the AG Dept
” Having looked at the approved number of doctors for each health care facility under each of the four regional authorities, we found a wide range of breaches in the employment practices for example
Under SEHRA which overseas (not real numbers) 25 healthcare facilities, we found 50 Doctors being employed when that region was only approved for 30 Doctors.
We found that of the 20 additional doctors employed, there were only 10 employment contracts and these were not approved by the Ministry of Finance .
The above was repeated across at the other regional health authorities with a total of 80 doctors being employed above the approved numbers and 80% without any sort of contracts.
Public and Opposition reaction
Health Sector Junior Doctor scandal, how could Dr Tufton oversee the employment of so many additional doctors who were never approved by the Ministry of Finance. Dr Guy is calling the actions of the Minister irresponsible and shows a lack of not just fiduciary oversight by the Minister, but also a flagrant disregard for the government of Jamaica procurement guidelines and employment practices. We are therefore calling for the immediate resignation of Dr Tufton 🙂
The impact of Covid-19 on the current situation
An uninformed causal observer looking on, may very conclude that the current situation with the Junior Doctors shows a clear sign of mismanagement by the Government of Jamaica and particularly the Ministry of Health and Wellness led by Dr Tufton.
How is it possible that we can have a crises on our hands and have over 100 Doctors who are ready to work but are unable to find jobs in the public sector.
A questioning observer like myself would ask, on average how many graduates do we produce and how many of them are normally absorbed by the public sector. I would also ask, have we ever had this problem before, before the answers those questions, let me first state the following
” I am not employed to the Ministry of Health and Wellness and neither did they furnish me with any data I have presented. All the information below is a result of my own research and I have cited my sources as well “
I examined data over a three year period and did some extrapolation without the “correction” of the data to account for people who would have dropped out of the course during the course of each year. In addition to the above I reduced the migration rate from 50% to 35% in the report I cited . Research work done from 1991 showed a 50% migration rate of all doctors in Jamaica over the period of time, here is the extract
Here is the final data set compilation .
You would note that based on my estimates above, approximately 124 Doctors who would have ended their internship would have left this year, but have been unable to do so due to the Covid-19 crises.
How many Doctors have been reported to have been out of a job.
What a little research can reveal, need I say more. We rely on our professionals to be honest and forthright but they won’t always do so and that is where people like myself comes in .
Bless .
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