Junior Dowie/Staff Photographer
Health Minister Horace Dalley (left) inspects some of the $10 million worth of medical supplies donated to the Kingston Public Hospital and Victoria Jubilee Hospital, yesterday. Food For the Poor donated the equipment in light of the shortage of medical supplies. Looking on are Patrice Charles-Freeman (centre), director of health care, Food For the Poor, and Dr. Patrick Bhoorasingh, senior medical officer.

Mark Beckford, Staff Reporter

Minister of Health Horace Dalley has sought to reassure the nation that the health sector will not face another severe shortage of medical supplies which forced some of the island's nurses to go on strike last week.

"I would like to reassure the nation that we will not run short of critical supplies in our hospitals," Dalley said yesterday at the handover of $10 million of medical supplies to Kingston Public Hospital (KPH) and Victoria Jubilee Hospital (VJH) by charitable organisation, Food For the Poor.

On Thursday, restive nurses from both institutions protested against what they said was a severe shortage in supplies such as syringes, needles and Panadol tablets at both hospitals. President of the Nurses' Association, Edith Allwood-Anderson, had said that the shortage of supplies was putting patients' lives at risk.

Initiatives put in place

Speaking at the KPH yesterday, Minister Dalley said that several initiatives were being put in place to ensure that this does not reoccur.

He disclosed that Health Corpo-ration Limited has delivered supplies to the hospitals since the protest action, and additional supplies are expected in the "next couple of weeks".

"We have bought supplies for KPH and other hospitals too, and a complete audit has been carried out by the chief medical officer of the level of supplies we have in all the stores in the various hospitals," he added.

The minister also announced that the supplies budget for KPH would be raised from $16 million to $25 million and the amount for single purchases would be increased from $40,000 to $100,000. Minister Dalley also called for more effective communication between the stores department and administration of the hospitals, so there is not a reoccurrence of Thursday's events.

"Every hospital must now do inventory and communicate it to the Ministry of Health," he said.

Donald Farquharson, chief executive officer of KPH and VJH, also underscored this point: "We say in a general way there are some challenges, but I think that if we ensure that we communicate better in the future, we surely should not have that reoccurrence."