The Caribbean Commission on Health and Development Report (CARICOM, 2005; as cited in IOM, 2018) reported that there were 2,256 registered nurses in the health sector as well as a vacancy rate of 58.3 per cent. The impact of emigration on the job vacancies gaps recorded was mainly of doctors and nurses, but the gaps in the health system due to emigration also included pharmacists, radiologists, and medical laboratory technologists (IOM, 2018).

In 2016, the Jamaica Ministry of Health detailed the nature of the health sector human resource gap. In some specialised areas of nursing, for example among public health nurses, there is as much as a 74 per cent gap between staffing needs and the number of available staff. There was a 70.7 per cent shortfall of nurse anaesthetists and a 68.1 per cent shortfall for psychiatrists. For many other specialisations, there are significant shortfalls in staffing with an estimated 54 per cent overall shortage (MOH, 2016 as cited in IOM, 2018).

A local psychiatrist who serves as a stakeholder for the STRiDE Jamaica team also explained that there are no neurologists in primary care in Jamaica. These specialists are available at public hospitals (University Hospital of the West Indies and Kingston Public Hospital), which line up with the earlier description of the relationship between primary and secondary care services in Jamaica. He also advises that a newly trained Neuropsychiatrist has joined the Kingston Public Hospital neurology service, but his service is limited, and does not extend to primary care or outpatient care.

References:

Caribbean Community (CARICOM). (2005). Report of the Regional Commission on Health and Development, Caribbean Commission on Health and Development, cited in IOM. (2018). Migration in Jamaica – A Country Profile 2018. Available from: https://publications.iom.int/books/migration-jamaica-country-profile-2018#:~:text=

IOM. (2018). Migration in Jamaica – A Country Profile 2018. Available from: https://publications.iom.int/books/migration-jamaica-country-profile-2018#:~:text=