Dear Editor,
The People's National Party (PNP) Administration has shown itself to be a Government that is devoid of leadership and lacks any form of transparency.
In a bid to pull the wool over Jamaicans' eyes they have continually transposed blame for their failed policies everywhere else but where it belongs, right at this Administration's feet. They would have us believe that it is the Jamaica Labour Party's no-user-fee policy that has created the disasters now plaguing the health sector, but that is disingenuous and misleading. The budgetary allocation for health has increased by more than 15 per cent since 2011 but I suppose the minister is doing less with more, as Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller once stated.
In any self-respecting democratic society the minister of health would not have waited on pressure from the Opposition and civil society, he would have packed his bags and left. What else but incompetence could be used to describe the handling of the CHIKV outbreak as the country had two years to prepare for such an eventuality. Thousands of Jamaicans were infected and many are still feeling the effects, while some have died because of complications associated with the disease.
An alarming number of children have been affected by hand, foot and mouth disease, 313 cases and counting were reported in 98 schools as of September 30. The Minister of Education Ronald Thwaites, when accused by Opposition spokesperson on education Kamina Johnson Smith of dragging their feet, posited school closures were only necessary when the number of cases in a given school exceeds 10 per cent of the school population as this was in keeping with international standards. This stance by the minister was ridiculous given the fact that Jamaica was experiencing severe water shortages due to drought conditions and so many schools were without adequate water supply, if any at all. One would presume that the goodly ministers would have taken the initiative and put preventative measures in place given the extenuating circumstances.
Then there is the shameless group of regional health authority chairs who presided over the death of 19 babies, which were caused not by poor health practices of the mothers, but rather as a result of breakdown in basic hospital hygiene protocol.
The final act of insult to the Jamaican people has been this shifting of Minister Fenton Ferguson to the Ministry of Labour and Social Security, effectively shifting not just portfolios but responsibility and accountability. Our prime minister has a disturbing pattern of shielding her Administration at the expense of good governance. This is a blatant act of political expediency over what is best for the nation. The electorate will soon speak and then they will have to listen.
Sandrine McKenzie
sandrinemckenzie876@gmail.com
Shameless, incompetent and insulting!
-->
The People's National Party (PNP) Administration has shown itself to be a Government that is devoid of leadership and lacks any form of transparency.
In a bid to pull the wool over Jamaicans' eyes they have continually transposed blame for their failed policies everywhere else but where it belongs, right at this Administration's feet. They would have us believe that it is the Jamaica Labour Party's no-user-fee policy that has created the disasters now plaguing the health sector, but that is disingenuous and misleading. The budgetary allocation for health has increased by more than 15 per cent since 2011 but I suppose the minister is doing less with more, as Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller once stated.
In any self-respecting democratic society the minister of health would not have waited on pressure from the Opposition and civil society, he would have packed his bags and left. What else but incompetence could be used to describe the handling of the CHIKV outbreak as the country had two years to prepare for such an eventuality. Thousands of Jamaicans were infected and many are still feeling the effects, while some have died because of complications associated with the disease.
An alarming number of children have been affected by hand, foot and mouth disease, 313 cases and counting were reported in 98 schools as of September 30. The Minister of Education Ronald Thwaites, when accused by Opposition spokesperson on education Kamina Johnson Smith of dragging their feet, posited school closures were only necessary when the number of cases in a given school exceeds 10 per cent of the school population as this was in keeping with international standards. This stance by the minister was ridiculous given the fact that Jamaica was experiencing severe water shortages due to drought conditions and so many schools were without adequate water supply, if any at all. One would presume that the goodly ministers would have taken the initiative and put preventative measures in place given the extenuating circumstances.
Then there is the shameless group of regional health authority chairs who presided over the death of 19 babies, which were caused not by poor health practices of the mothers, but rather as a result of breakdown in basic hospital hygiene protocol.
The final act of insult to the Jamaican people has been this shifting of Minister Fenton Ferguson to the Ministry of Labour and Social Security, effectively shifting not just portfolios but responsibility and accountability. Our prime minister has a disturbing pattern of shielding her Administration at the expense of good governance. This is a blatant act of political expediency over what is best for the nation. The electorate will soon speak and then they will have to listen.
Sandrine McKenzie
sandrinemckenzie876@gmail.com
Shameless, incompetent and insulting!
-->