“I want to just say very clearly that we value the partnership with Cuba. We value their contribution; we currently have 88 Cuban doctors and 199 nurses here. I want to just recognise the initiatives and their efforts and, hopefully, we will continue to build on that,” Tufton said.

   “The future of HR (human resources) in health will require more collaborations, however, using technology and friendships to fill the gaps that have been and are being created from a highly mobile labour force. We have to look wider, think deeper and adjust our traditional thinking around who and how to get more skills in healthcare,” he added.

   Tufton was making his contribution to the 2025/26 Sectoral Debate in the House of Representatives.

   The Minister said the Ministry has started exploring long-term relationships in training and clinical exchanges with India, Philippines and Nigeria, in the first instance.

   These countries were targeted based on existing friendships, compatibility with language, training modules and technology availability, and past experiences with these nationals as healthcare workers in Jamaica.

   “Earlier this year, I visited India and the Philippines. We had excellent discussions and there is a follow-up in terms of trying to actualise these relationships for the benefit of training. Where training is not sufficient and we have gaps and our Jamaicans need help, and we can establish a clinical exchange… we are going to have to do the same thing as we do with the Cubans,” Tufton said.