Opposition health spokesman Dr Alfred Dawes on Monday launched a tirade against the government’s handling of the health sector, alleging that there was high-level corruption in the purchase of inferior and overpriced cars from China, which amounted to a form of rapacious capitalism which is pulling millions of dollars from the ministry of health and welfare.

“There is a pattern here that emerges, and when you dig deeper, you realize that all of these patterns have root causes, and that’s what’s causing the health care sector to collapse right now,” Dawes, a physician, told reporters. at a press conference called by the People’s National Party at the Office of the Leader of the Opposition in St Andrew.

“This blame game about getting new cars and breaking them down in a short period of time seems to make sense until you find out what types of cars are being brought in,” he said.

“What has happened over the years is that the cheapest Chinese equipment has been bought, sold to the Ministry of Health at exorbitant margins – over 1,000%. When I hear some of the prices for some of these cars, I know they cost a tenth of what they are resold for,” Dr Dawes added.

“I am not against capitalism, but there is a side of capitalism that is rapacious and takes money from the Ministry of Health because we do not get quality for the money that is spent on a lot of this equipment, and when you bring this equipment there is no service contract, no maintenance. In no time all the machines break down and what’s left is a lot of rubbish in hospital corridors and warehouses,” said Dawes.

He prefaced his criticism against last week’s storm over the postponement of spine surgery for an 11-year-old girl at Bustamante Hospital for Children (BHC) in St Andrew because of a failed air conditioning unit in the operating room there.

Last Friday, Health and Medical Minister Dr Christopher Tufton told reporters at a press conference at the BHC that arrangements had been made for the operation to be carried out at the University Hospital of the West Indies.

The 11-year-old girl, Ajanae Parchment, had been scheduled for surgery to correct an “aggressive” form of scoliosis. However, her mother, Sandra Aitcheson, was reported by
The gleaner newspaper saying he was told by an orthopedic surgeon that the procedure could not be performed because the operating room was not air-conditioned.

During the press conference, Jamaican-born orthopedic surgeon and spine specialist Dr. Robert Brady, who led a US medical mission scheduled to perform the surgery, expressed frustration with some of the challenges of the health infrastructure he and his team encountered on the island.

“I come here because I want to help people… I want to do good, that’s why I come here twice a year… I’ve been coming here for 20 years. There are clear infrastructure issues that need to be addressed,” Dr. Brady said after joining a press conference following the completion of one of the mission’s scheduled operations.

In response, Dr Tufton acknowledged that the country has a perennial, systemic problem with the maintenance of medical equipment and facilities, but noted that the Government had spent hundreds of millions to modernize the public health infrastructure.

He reiterated that in order to address some of the poor maintenance issues, the Government has taken the decision, starting from another month, to lease equipment instead of buying it.

However, Dr Dawes, in his press conference on Monday, said any argument about the “equipment falling” being “the fault of the administrators for not taking care of it must be taken into account” when passing judgement.

Alleging corruption in the procurement process, Dr Dawes said there was “a significant conflict of interest … resulting in companies that are connected to stakeholders and decision makers in contracting entities being awarded contracts”.

“This broken procurement system manifests itself in many ways,” he said.

“It is manifested by the ownership of a funeral home by a councilor in the health minister’s constituency, and the funeral home receives all contracts from the South East Regional Health Authority and therefore poor people have to travel from KPH ( Kingston). Downtown Kingston Public Hospital) to Spanish Town to identify and claim the bodies of their loved ones during the grieving process, but I heard the bidding process was superior. It seems like a way.

“It’s a failed procurement process why an electronic health record system could go to auction for $370 million … and when the contract was awarded it’s $800 million and we’re told it’s over board.

“That’s why a $1.5 million operating bed only takes three months, when the same operating bed, if you were to buy it from China, the cost in Jamaican dollars would be $150,000. We are witnessing this form of rapacious capitalism taking $140 million out of the Department of Health and there is no value for taxpayers’ dollars,” charged Dr Dawes.

He said, to make matters worse, when legitimate companies provide top-of-the-line equipment, there is no maintenance contract or warranty, or if there is a warranty, it is broken because there is no scheduled maintenance.

“The system is broken when it comes to maintenance,” said Dr Dawes, as he lamented the lack of trained mechanical or biomedical engineers, which he said leads to the ministry needing to outsource services to private outfitters “at exorbitant rates “.

According to Dr Dawes, the Department of Health has “outsourced everything possible instead of building capacity”.

Warning that there were more equipment breakdowns, Dr Dawes further accused the ministry of focusing its efforts on saving its image by increasing marketing spend while the maintenance budget had “shrunk”.

In an attack on Dr Tufton, who – in response to increased criticism of the state of the sector – pledged at the weekend to name and shame those who drop the ball in resource management, Dr Dawes said, “the hiding ” and “blame shifting” must end.