Minister of Health and Wellness, Dr. the Hon Christopher Tufton (right), shares a light moment with Member of Parliament for Kingston East and Port Royal, Phillip Paulwell (left) and President of Fraser Fontaine and Kong Insurance Brokers Ltd. (FFK), Gerard Fontaine, at the adoption ceremony for the Port Royal Health Centre on July 7.
 
 
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The Port Royal Health Centre has been officially adopted by Fraser, Fontaine and Kong Insurance Brokers Ltd.
Speaking at the adoption ceremony, which took place at the health centre on Thursday, July 7, Minister of Health and Wellness, Dr. the Hon. Christopher Tufton, said it is important for Jamaicans to know that there is partnership in Public Health.
“I want to urge Jamaicans to embrace partnership as a future fundamental of public health response – of personal health and wellness and of community health and wellness – because there is no other way,” Dr. Tufton said.
“We have to adjust our mindset to working with others to solve the problems that we face. Humanity will be better off. In the public health space, it is patient-centric. We must all turn our eyes to the patient and solve the problem of the patient,” he added.
The Minister expressed gratitude to the donors for their benevolence to the people of Port Royal through the adoption.
“There are many entities that have demonstrated compassion in different ways to advancing the cause of good health at the community level, and today Fraser, Fontaine and Kong is doing that,” Dr. Tufton said.
He thanked the company for the “decision, efforts, motivation and social conscience” demonstrated by reaching out to the facility.
Meanwhile, Dr. Tufton pointed out that the Port Royal Health Centre Adoption is number 38, and that the Adopt-a-Clinic Programme has garnered almost $170 million in commitments, to date.
“We’ve embarked on this programme because we feel that we really need to remind Jamaicans at the community level and otherwise of the importance of our health centres and the importance of partnership around our health centres,” the Minister said.
He noted that the pledged amount of $3 million over three years will go a far way, because in primary healthcare it is the small improvements to enhance the environment for the healthcare worker and the client that really make the difference.
According to the Minister, the importance of healthcare is an invaluable lesson from the COVID-19 experience.
He pointed out that it is the nurses, nurses’ aides and support team (including Community Health Aides) who had to go out into the communities, inform the people, guide them, and visit them when they could not come out because they are over 65.
The Port Royal Health Centre, which is located in one of Jamaica’s most historic towns, serves a population of 3,327.
The health centre is one of more than 300 health facilities at the primary-care level islandwide that will benefit from the Ministry of Health and Wellness Primary Healthcare Reform Programme.
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INTRODUCTION
Initial Officer Training Programme (IOTP) provides basic military officer training to Officer Cadets (OCdts) and their equivalents from law enforcement and uniformed services. The programme falls within the tactical level of the Professional Military Education (PME) framework of armed forces and is modelled from the Royal Military Academy Sandhursts’ (RMAS) Commissioning Course.  It was designed with the direct support and guidance of RMAS Instructing and Support Staff.
 
Rationale
Traditionally, the Jamaica Defence Force’s (JDF) longstanding partnerships with militaries across the world has seen its OCdts being trained in academies in the following countries: United States, England, Canada, China and India. Upon the return of OCdts to the JDF, there is a requirement for doctrine and operating procedure standardization due to the varying concepts and differing contents of the training they had undergone. This is normally done at the Unit level and later, through a Young Officers’ Course. The advent of COVID-19 added a new level of complexity to travel, thus negatively affecting the process of sending OCdts overseas. Additionally, the ongoing expansion and restructuring of the Force to cauterize the ballooning threats to national security has caused an increased demand for newly commissioned Second Lieutenants.
Due to the carefully adapted military and academic curricula, IOTP serves as the course to treat with the aforementioned considerations. The methodology used addresses each issue directly and the course, through the delivery of a bespoke training syllabus, is fit for the JDF and is also relevant to the militaries and organizations within the Caribbean region and in other parts of the world.
 
Concept
Having the RMAS approach to training at its core, IOTP is designed with a syllabus that sees male and female integration throughout training. The course focusses on developing military skills and command with a leadership ‘golden thread’. The course structure allows the Instructing Staff to educate, build, develop and scrutinize an OCdt’s ability to decide and communicate accurately and ethically while under pressure and or stress. The expectation is that on commissioning, an OCdt will be fully cognizant of the responsibilities and personal conditions that being an Officer imposes upon them. The product of the IOTP will be an ethical and robust Officer who has the knowledge, skills, attitudes and intellectual agility to adapt their decision-making process and approach to any environment.
 
Location
The home of IOTP is the Caribbean Military Academy (CMA) Newcastle, which is located at the Newcastle Hill Station, St Andrew, Jamaica.
Nestled in the cool hills of upper St Andrew and amidst beautiful trees, ferns, ground orchids, delicate wild flowers and a profusion of ginger lilies, is the Newcastle
Training Depot founded in 1841 by Major General Sir William Maynard Gomm (later Field Marshall). Gomm, a veteran of the wars against revolutionary France and Lieutenant Governor of Jamaica from 1840 to 1841, relentlessly badgered the War Office in London to establish a mountain station for British soldiers in Jamaica soon after taking up his post.
The idea of the hill station was first raised by Gomm in a letter dated April 7, 1840 to Governor Sir Charles Metcalfe. Gomm pointed out that while Up Park Camp was an ideal location for a barracks, it was subject to the ravages of yellow fever. In Jamaica the
British garrison was stationed on the plain at Up Park Camp, Stony Hill, Fort Augusta and Port Royal. Here, on the average, 1 soldier died every 2½ days. According to Russell, the year 1838 was considered a ‘good’ year: only 91 men died. In 1839, 110 men perished and in the following year 121. Initially, the British government was conservative in approving a hill station for the troops in Jamaica. They were concerned about the expense of the venture.
In May 1841, London finally sanctioned Gomm’s efforts to build what is thought to be the first permanent mountain station in the British West Indies at Newcastle. The site selected was a coffee plantation protruding from the southern face of the grand ridge of the Blue Mountains. The British government paid £4,230 for the Newcastle site.
At the outbreak of World War II (1939-1945), life at Newcastle changed a little. The British regiment was replaced by Canadian regiments which remained at Newcastle for the duration of the war. With hostilities over in 1945, the Canadians left and once again a British battalion was stationed there.
In 1958, the West Indies Federation was founded and the infantry regiments of the various Caribbean islands were disbanded and reorganized into the West India Regiment. Newcastle became a training depot, training recruits from all over the West Indies as part of the
newly formed West Indies Federation. In 1962 when Federation was disbanded, the West India Regiment was also disbanded. Jamaica simultaneously sought her independence, which was achieved on August 6, 1962. With independence, Newcastle was given to the Jamaican government as part of a general settlement of all military lands in Jamaica.
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