Spanish Town Hospital joins family caregiver programme as health and tourism initiatives advance

The Ministry of Health and Wellness has brought Spanish Town Hospital into its family caregiver programme, Health Minister Dr. Christopher Tufton announced on Friday, July 17, 2026.

Tufton said the scheme aims to involve relatives more closely in patient care, ease pressure on clinical staff, and keep hospital standards intact. “Health is everybody’s business and the administration of health should be everybody’s business,” he said, arguing that family members, close friends and guardians can contribute to care even without clinical training.

The programme was first tried at Bustamante Hospital for Children, where 1,053 caregivers have enrolled after registration, orientation, dress-code and conduct rules, and have supported more than 737 patients with care and psychosocial help. Encouraged by those results, Tufton said he wants at least six more public hospitals to join during this financial year.

Separately, 20 unions and professional bodies representing public health workers have backed the ministry’s accountability framework after talks on governance, service delivery and performance. Tufton called the response positive and said a tripartite arrangement with unions could lift care quality, cut complaints and improve working conditions. The framework backs stronger performance management, sound financial and administrative practice, and a culture of excellence, transparency and patient-centred care.

In tourism, Jamaica has begun a twice-weekly, year-round LIAT Air service from Pointe-à-Pitre, Guadeloupe, to Montego Bay on Tuesdays and Saturdays. The first flight landed at Sangster International Airport on Tuesday with 33 passengers, with daily service planned if demand grows. State Minister in the Ministry of Tourism Tova Hamilton said the link opens Jamaica to the French Caribbean and Europe and supports Tourism 3.0, which seeks more local benefit from visitor spending for taxi operators, farmers, artisans and entrepreneurs.

Major Organised Crime and Anti-Corruption Agency (MOCA) Director General Colonel Desmond Edwards, speaking last week at the Jamaica Institute of Financial Services Anti-Fraud Seminar, urged closer, practical cooperation among banks, regulators and police locally and regionally to fight fraud. He said fraud intelligence should be treated as a shared national asset and affirmed MOCA’s work with partners against organised crime, corruption and complex financial offences.

Seventy-three cocoa growers in Clarendon and St. Mary have completed an eight-week Rural Agricultural Development Authority Farmer Field School course on frosty pod rot, covering grafting, nutrition, pesticide use and land care. Agriculture, Fisheries and Mining Minister Floyd Green said disease prevalence fell 82 per cent overall and 91 per cent among active farmers, while pod output rose 70 per cent. At a graduation at St. Jude’s Anglican Church in Stony Hill, St. Andrew, graduates received toolkits including herbicide, fungicide, a machete, reaping hook, file, spreader-sticker adhesive and a 45-gallon water drum. Green also announced a planned revolving loan scheme for pole pruners, chainsaws, brush cutters, mist blowers and reaping hooks.

Meanwhile, 32 top 2026 Primary Exit Profile performers received government scholarships, including the Marcus Garvey, Jag Smith, George William Gordon and Paul Bogle awards. Recipients include 14 boys and 14 girls placed at schools such as Campion College, Wolmer’s Boys’, Immaculate Conception High, Glenmuir High, Manchester High and Carter College. The top boy and girl also won Guardian Group Foundation scholarships for five years of secondary school, with further awards from the Jamaica Teachers’ Association, Massy Gas Products Limited, Petrojam, Seprod, Jamaica Energy Partners, Lasco, Musson and Alva B. Johnson.