KINGSTON, Jamaica – Jamaica’s Prime Minister Bruce Golding has called on the Organisation for Strategic Development in Jamaica (OSDJ), a non-profit organization based in Minnesota, to provide assistance in configuring Jamaica’s medical system, so that it can be wired into a network of advancement in medicine, where the country can benefit from the research taking place all over the world.
He says the country needs to get to a stage where the ordinary Jamaican can become the beneficiary of the genius of the human brain and the miracle of advancement of medicine. Mr. Golding said new mind-boggling advances in technology and medical research were opening new frontiers in terms of medical intervention but the challenge for developing countries like Jamaica, is how to share in that new experience.
Mr. Golding was delivering the main address at the close of a two-day ‘Advancements in Medicine 2008’ conference and launch of the ‘Barry Wint memorial Fund’ at the Sunset Jamaica Grande Resort hotel in Ocho Rios over the weekend. Mr. Golding said Jamaica was blessed as so many of our countrymen in the Diaspora and other organizations that can be seen as part of the extended Jamaican family, have provided significant assistance to the country.
He expressed the government’s gratitude to the OSDJ, through its President, Wayland Richards, for the donation of some 24 dialysis machines to hospitals in the island. He said the organization’s contribution has been an exceptional one since its few short years of existence and one which would help to save the lives of hundreds of Jamaicans who died from renal failure because they could not afford this aspect of health care.
Also addressing the function was the United States Ambassador, Brenda Johnson who gave a commitment to assist the organization in its various outreach programs in Jamaica.
The organization used the occasion to launch the Barry Wint memorial fund, through a moving tribute made by his widow, Mrs. Yvonne Wint. Dr Barry Wint was the Chief medical Officer and the chief architect of the ‘Advancements in medicine conference’. The fund will be used to provide scholarships to medical students, nurses and public health students in Jamaica, and to assist in the infrastructural development of medical facilities in the island.
