Black Immigrant Daily News

The Ministry of Health and Wellness has signed contracts with five private health institutions in Kingston, to perform elective surgeries and provide recovery spaces for public sector patients.

This is being facilitated under the Public-Private Partnership component of the project CODE CARE initiative.

The institutions are the University Hospital of the West Indies (UHWI), Andrews Memorial Hospital, Heart Institute of the Caribbean, Medical Associates Hospital, and Winchester Surgical and Medical Institute.

These institutions will serve persons in the South East Regional Health Authority (SERHA), which covers the parishes of Kingston and St. Andrew, St. Catherine, and St. Thomas.

A total of 2,000 surgeries will be done under CODE CARE, which aims to clear the backlog of outstanding elective cases due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Speaking at the signing ceremony at the Ministry’s Emergency Operations Centre in New Kingston, on Thursday (November 10), Portfolio Minister, Dr. the Hon. Christopher Tufton, said approximately 115 surgeries have, so far, been conducted under the programme.

“This is an indication that it can work, and it is working. Most of those, 85 or so, were done in the west; that is where we signed the first [contract] with [four] institutions. The reward for this programme is to see the relief and the happiness on the faces of the patients in their beds,” Dr. Tufton said.

He noted that the Ministry has outsourced some 200 cases to the facilities in western Jamaica, based on the backlog of cases at Cornwall Regional Hospital and several other institutions.

“We are trying to pull about 200 to 300 [cases] here in the SERHA region, and we have compiled… up to 70 or 75. So we are still going through the files and trying to pull and get persons to come on board,” Dr. Tufton said.

For his part, Chief Executive Officer, Winchester Surgical and Medical Institute, Dr. Neville Graham, said many patients will benefit from the initiative.

“It is our responsibility, as private sector, to partner with government in this public/private partnership to make this… work,” he underscored.

Just over $1 billion has been budgeted for the CODE CARE programme, which aims to clear the backlog of elective surgeries in hospitals.

Of the sum, $80 million is earmarked for rehabilitating operating theatres in the public health system; $200 million for private-public partnerships; $223 million for equipment; $279 million for nursing missions, and $153 million for additional staff hours; $23 million for project management, and $59 million for communications.

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Black Immigrant Daily News

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A November 2, 2022 autopsy has found that Bordelais Correctional Facility (BCF) remand inmate Cecilia Augustin died due to a blood clot from the leg that travelled to her lungs.

The official medical report stated the cause of death as the result of ‘Bilateral Pulmonary Thromboembolism consequent on Bilateral leg deep vein Thrombosis.’

According to a report, there were no signs of any other physical issue.

The Department of Home Affairs said in a statement that forty-year-old Cecilia Augustin entered remand at the BCF on Wednesday, October 26, 2022.

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She was in custody on two remand warrants, including possessing a dangerous weapon and disorderly conduct in public.

The United States citizen, who was in a one-person cell in the female unit, had complained of a waist ache.

As a result, the Department of Home Affairs said the BCF summoned the Dennery Fire station on October 27, and emergency personnel took Augustin to the Dennery Hospital accompanied by a female correctional officer.

She passed away later that day.

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Black Immigrant Daily News

Il ne restait plus qu’un agriculteur à Lützerath, village allemand construit sur d’immenses réserves de charbon. Il a rendu les clefs de sa ferme le mois dernier, laissant les lieux aux défenseurs du…

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Black Immigrant Daily News

Il ne restait plus qu’un agriculteur à Lützerath, village allemand construit sur d’immenses réserves de charbon. Il a rendu les clefs de sa ferme le mois dernier, laissant les lieux aux défenseurs du…

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Black Immigrant Daily News

Family members of a 16-year-old lad are calling on the Guyana Police Force (GPF) to investigate an incident that occurred last Wednesday in vicinity of the St George’s Cathedral in Georgetown and involved the shooting of this teen.

The teen’s father, Kenneth Mackintosh, has said the incident occurred at around 12:00h last Wednesday, while his teen son, a resident of Smyth Street in Georgetown, and his friend were walking towards the St John’s College on Waterloo Street.

According to this father, his son had once been a student of St John’s College, but was expelled in 2021 after being involved in a fight with another student.

This father has said that, on the day in question, while his son was walking with his friend, he came face-to-face with the teen with whom he had had the altercation that had led to his expulsion from St John’s College last year.

He said that teen approached his son with a pair of scissors, and both his son and the friend began to chase this aggressor.

“After he was being chased, he ran over to the Constab, and the Constab Police saw two boys – my son and his friend – chasing him (the aggressor), and they began chasing my son and his friend. While chasing them, they gave a warning shot in the air, and my son stopped, and they arrested him,” the man said.

This father is contending that even though his son was already in handcuffs and in the Constabulary vehicle, he was shot in the abdomen by a City Constable.

“They gun-butt him…and the officer point a gun and shoot him. They raised up his friend jersey, thinking it was him who was shot, but then they see the blood coming from him,” he said.

This teen’s family members are contending that after he was shot, he was taken to the hospital, and a senior rank in the City Constabulary – a relative of the officer who had shot him – came to them with an offer of compensation, which they have refused to accept.

They have expressed a conviction that this case is being covered up by the City Constabulary Department.

Contacted by media personnel over the weekend, acting Town Clerk Candace Nelson has refused to provide any details on the shooting. She repeatedly stated that it was the weekend and she would not provide any information, since she is not conducting the investigation. All calls to officials at the City Constabulary have since proven futile.

As such, family members of this injured teen are calling on the Police to conduct a thorough investigation of this matter.

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