Jamaica-Cuba Eye Care Programme Extended
Jamaicans will continue to benefit from services under the Jamaica-Cuba Eye Care Programme.
Minister of Health and Wellness, Dr. the Hon. Christopher Tufton, and Cuban Ambassador to Jamaica, Her Excellency Inés Fors Fernández, signed the Technical Cooperation agreement, today (September 24), at the Ministry’s New Kingston offices, to extend the project.
Since the programme was implemented in 2010, some 30,000 Jamaicans have benefited.
Dr. Tufton said expansion of the agreement is about ensuring that the “continuity of care provided under the programme remains effective, even as we finalise the ongoing assessment of current needs, in order to inform a successor agreement”.
The Minister said that extension of the initiative “has come at an “opportune time”, given a number of policy positions that the Government is putting together to strengthen eye-care services in the public health system.
He informed that the Ministry will be giving attention to sections of the population that are underserved, with a special focus on prevention and young children in school.
Meanwhile, Ambassador Fernández said the Cuban medical professionals working in Jamaica regard it as an “honour” to serve their regional brothers and sisters in the provision of critical healthcare.
The Jamaica-Cuba Eye Programme is operated from the Kingston School of Nursing, National Chest Hospital, and the St. Joseph Hospital.
SOURCE: JIS
