Thompson praises healthcare heroes

Government senator Dr Elon Thompson has delivered a powerful tribute to Jamaica's healthcare workers, praising their extraordinary courage and commitment in the aftermath of Hurricane Melissa -- even as many faced personal devastation.

Speaking in the Senate last Friday, Thompson said the unwavering, tireless efforts of health workers kept the system functioning at a time when disaster threatened to cripple it.

He revealed that more than 2,000 healthcare workers were personally affected by the hurricane. Despite this, they staffed emergency rooms, supported field hospitals, provided trauma care, conducted public health surveillance, and kept critical services running when they were needed most.

The respected urologist has also been tasked by the Ministry of Health and Wellness with assessing operating theatres in hospitals damaged by Hurricane Melissa. His mission is to determine their current functionality, identify recovery needs, and prioritise interventions to restore and sustain safe surgical services.

Thompson painted a stark picture of the storm's impact on health facilities. He recalled standing inside battered operating theatres, staring at water-stained walls, silent machines, and spaces where life-saving activity had once been routine.

"For a moment, the stillness felt heavy," Thompson said.

He stressed that health workers -- many of whom were also victims of the storm -- put everything on the line to save lives.

"Nurses whose own homes were flooded. Technicians who had lost personal belongings. Porters who had walked through debris simply to report for duty. They stood beside me in those damaged theatres not with despair, but with determination. Their courage lit those rooms brighter than any surgical lamp could," Thompson said.

With surgical theatres flooded, sterilisation units down, and equipment compromised, he noted that the commitment of these workers became the critical factor that enabled the Ministry of Health and Wellness to restore services faster than expected.

"Operating theatres are not simply rooms. They are sanctuaries," Thompson said.

"They are the spaces where a mother prays as her child is wheeled inside, where fathers pace hallways with trembling hands, where surgeons fight for every heartbeat," he added.

Thompson, who is trained in urological surgery and deeply familiar with theatre operations, emphasised that restoring these spaces is not just infrastructure work. For him, it is "restoring hope and preserving the capacity of our nation to save its people".

Supporting the call to suspend the fiscal rules, Thompson argued that doing so would create essential fiscal space for recovery efforts.

"Rigid fiscal rules cannot repair a theatre roof. They cannot dry soaked equipment. They cannot re-establish sterilisation capacity washed out overnight," he said.