#Jamaica, April 13, 2018 – Montego Bay – The Government has provided $2 million worth of medical equipment to the Santa Cruz Health Centre of Excellence in St. Elizabeth, which will enhance healthcare services to citizens served by the facility.  The items include a standby generator, phlebotomy chair, diagnostic set for eyes and nose, electrocardiograph (ECG) machine, and a refrigerator for storing specimen and vaccines. The centre will also receive a cardiac monitor.

The provision, under the Public Sector Transformation and Modernisation Division (PSTMD) of the Office of the Cabinet, is part of efforts by the Government to revolutionise service delivery across the public sector.  It follows a customer-service assessment of the health sector, which was completed between 2014 and 2015.

All Type 3 facilities that fall under the St. Elizabeth Health Department are slated to receive proper directional signage.  As a best practice, customer-service desks will be posted in all facilities and customer representatives will be made easily identifiable with marked vests.

Speaking at the handover ceremony at the health centre on April 10, Principal Director of the Modernisation Implementation Unit in the PSTMD, Wayne Robertson, said the Unit will continue to strengthen public institutions to make them more effective and efficient in delivering services to the public.

“We are seeking to revolutionise customer service in Jamaica, which is why we have revamped the programme.  We are developing a policy, which is called the service excellence policy, and we have also mandated ministries to develop customer-service-improvement plans,” he indicated.  He said the policy will be developed and promulgated by December of this year and will set out the mandates of public-sector institutions.

Mr. Robertson said the PSTMD is seeking to improve the ease of doing business, including making it easier for customers and patients to access government services.  He underscored the importance of the health sector in helping to achieve Jamaica’s growth agenda, and encouraged the Southern Regional Health Authority (SRHA) to do its part in maintaining the equipment while the PSTMD continues to transform the sector.

“This is not an event; it is the start of a very long important process … . We are working assiduously behind the scenes, we are going to be collaborating further with you, the health centre, to make sure that we do more if we can,” he said.

Regional Director, SRHA, Michael Bent, lauded the efforts of the PSTMD and committed to continue working with the team to add value to health services throughout St. Elizabeth.

“Transformation and modernisation is important in today’s organisation. Certainly, at the Southern Regional Health Authority, we have embraced that and we have taken practical steps to ensure that we are ahead, because we need to be the cutting edge,” he said.

He noted that “no longer are we going to be using equipment and technologies and processes that are outdated and are not optimising outcomes and outputs”.

The PSTMD was created to streamline activities aimed at boosting government efficiency, through the engagement of technocrats in the ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs), civil society and other groups.

The programme is consistent with the Vision 2030 Jamaica – National Development Plan, which commits the Administration to foster world-class customer service and professionalism in all public institutions and to create mechanisms for efficient and effective delivery of services.

Release: JIS