Krystal Lee Critical of ‘Misleading’ Statements from Dr. Alfred Dawes

Member of Parliament for North West St. Ann, the Jamaica Labour Party’s Krystal Lee, is criticising Opposition Spokesman on Health, Dr. Alfred Dawes, for what she says is his willingness to mislead the country about the state of the public health system.

Mahiri Stewart has the details.

In a statement on Thursday, the JLP’s Krystal Lee says in his public statements, Dr. Alfred Dawes pretended he’s unaware of the raft of major reforms taking place in the health sector.

Those reforms, she notes, include 1,000 additional doctors being given permanent posts, 1,500 new places for nurses in permanent positions, and an expansion in the availability of hospital beds and several operating theatres that have been upgraded.

Miss Lee says Dawes has ignored the fact 370 additional doctors have been added at the primary level and that, under the JLP-administration, the National Health Fund is now prescribing 3 million prescriptions per year, which is up from 1 million four years ago.

She says it’s unfortunate that Dr. Dawes also failed to note major expansion work at several health facilities across the country, including the Spanish Town and Noel Holmes Hospitals, and that a new state-of-the-art facility is being built in western Jamaica to attend to the healthcare needs of children.

Lee says the PNP spokesman should be reminded of a damning statement he made in 2015 about the PNP’s management of the health system.

The North West St. Ann member of parliament also described Dawes’ criticism of the Programme for the Reduction of Child and Maternal Mortality programme which he suggested has failed to deliver results. 

She says the sterling praise by the EU for the government’s implementation of the programme reduces the credibility of criticisms made by Dawes.