Enhancing Customer Service in Public Health: A Focus on Jamaica

SOUTH FLORIDA – Dr. Christopher Tufton, the Minister of Health & Wellness, spoke to members of the diaspora. He said that Jamaica wants to improve customer service in public health. The goal is to achieve the best health outcomes for the people of Jamaica. The island aims to ensure the best health outcomes for its people.

The Minister spoke to the diaspora in Florida on Wednesday evening, September 25, 2024. He said that better customer service is key to “Empowering Communities to Combat Non-Communicable Diseases.” This was the main topic of his talk. He delivered it at the Island Space Caribbean Museum during The Consul General Oliver Mair’s Distinguished Lecture Series.

“Oftentimes when the complaints come, it is because somebody never talked to patients or persons want to hear something about their relative and [they don’t get that chance],” he said.

“It is a message that we have to get across: that therapy is very much embedded in the customer service experience – not just the doctor or the prescription. We really have to work at that,” the Minister added.

This, Dr. Tufton noted, is in addition to the need for the careful management of resources.

“More often than not, I have determined, the problem is not so much a resource problem as it is a management problem. It is how we allocate the resources when have to create optimal benefits to whether the external stakeholder or the internal stakeholder,” he said.

Healthcare for Everyone

The Minister took the opportunity during the healthcare talk to update diaspora members. He shared information about efforts to ensure health for everyone, at every age.

These efforts, he noted, include continuing the dialogue with private sector stakeholders on the introduction of front-of-package labelling; and the Schools Nutrition Policy, which is being progressed to help to create a culture of better food choices among Jamaicans – some 77 per cent of whom died because of a NCD such as hypertension and diabetes in 2020.

“From a behavioural standpoint, it is understandable why if you start with the kids, you are likely to develop better habits – habits that are likely to become permanent over time,” he said.

These efforts are complemented by programmes such as the ongoing Jamaica Moves, which has its focus on the promotion of movement, health checks and nutrition in schools, communities and workplaces; Know Your Numbers, which promotes screening; and New Limb, New Life, which helps to make prostheses more affordable for persons.