The vast majority of persons who visit public hospitals and health centres have received care without any negative experience, says Minister of Health and Wellness, Dr. the Hon. Christopher Tufton. Addressing the observance of International Nurses Day and the launch of National Nurses’ Week, at The Jamaica Pegasus hotel in New Kingston on May 12, the Minister said last year 3.2 million visits were made to public healthcare institutions, and no bad experiences were reported. “Obviously, 99.9 per cent of those visits are incident-free. People go, they are cared for, they get the medication, the nurse is nice, so there is no doubt that the overwhelming majority care and show the love that is necessary in the therapy that is required in treatment,” the Minister said, while lauding healthcare professionals in the public system. He urged the nurses to be steadfast in offering compassionate care, adding that if one per cent of the staff ignores the protocol, it gives everybody a bad name. “I am soliciting your support, and even advice, in how we enhance as part of our technical competence the compassion that has to go into caring, because every time we get a bad public exposure it undermines the entire cadre of workers in the system,” the Minister said. “There is always that one story which undermines the confidence in the entire profession, so one of the things that I would like to see, as part of this paradigm shift, is a greater focus on how we reinforce compassion in caring. I tell people therapy starts at the gate, not on the hospital bed or in the doctor’s office. Therapy starts with good morning; how are you? Can I get you a drink of water? Let me make sure that the bathroom is clean,” Dr. Tufton told the audience. The Minister told the nurses that his Ministry has done a lot to make things better for them, and while he is not seeking to paint a perfect picture, “we have made some progress in areas such as making more posts permanent over the last number of years than any time before”, with nearly 1,500 posts. He noted that before then, many nurses had to work on a temporary basis on contract, and that did not offer the security of tenure that they deserve. The Minister said the Government is building out more hospitals, and hopefully, that will translate into better working conditions for the nurses.