Dionne Rose, Parliamentary Reporter
LUE
HEALTH MINISTER Horace Dalley on Tuesday dismissed claims that attempts were made to remove Chief Ophthalmologist at the Kingston Public Hospital (KPH), Dr. Albert Lue, from the Cuban Miracle Eyecare Programme.
Mr. Dalley was responding to questions in Parliament from Opposition Spokesman on Health, Dr. Ken Baugh.
"Will you please confirm or deny whether an attempt was made to remove Dr. Lue from the Kingston Public Hospital from the screening process going to Cuba," Dr. Baugh asked.
But Minister Dalley staunchly denied this.
"Mr. Speaker, I am not aware of this. No decision was taken to exclude the Jamaican Chief Ophthalmologist, Dr. Albert Lue, from the programme. It is mischievous, it is a lie!" he said.
Minister Dalley, however, admitted that another centre was established at the Jamaica Society for the Blind, on Old Hope Road in Kingston, to screen patients going to Cuba.
He also denied that there were attempts to withdraw the screening programme from the KPH.
When contacted Tuesday, Dr. Lue said that while he was not physically removed from the programme, two Cuban doctors who examined patients returning from Cuba had stopped coming to the KPH to see the patients.
"They asked that the patients be sent to the Society of the Blind," he said. "If the patients are sent there, we won't be able to monitor the patients who come to us (after surgery in Cuba)."
RECONCILIATION
Dr. Lue was, however, quick to point out that the Ministry of Health was currently making reconciliation with the doctors to have them returned to KPH.
"We are trying to extend the olive branch to them," he told The Gleaner.
In the meantime, Mr. Dalley said 19 patients have developed serious complications from having surgery in Cuba.
The complications varied from corneal oedema, or cloudiness of the transparent part at the front of the eyeball, surgical trauma and dark discoloration in certain parts of the eye.
The Cuban EyeCare programme came under scrutiny following Dr. Lue's revelation in May that the eyesight of several persons had deteriorated six months after they were treated.
The programme was implemented in September of last year, following an agreement among the governments of Jamaica, Cuba and Venezuela, to provide surgical eye care services to poor and vulnerable persons, who have difficulty accessing affordable eye care services.
As of June 10, some 2,336 Jamaican patients received some 2,700 surgical interventions with more than 10,000 persons screened islandwide.
