The only male doctors listed as parish medical officers of health are Dr Andre McIntosh and Stephen Figueroa in Kingston and St Andrew; Dr D'Oyen Smith in St Thomas, and Dr Kaushal Singh in Hanover.
The other women leading medical procedures at other institutions are Dr Jacqueline Wright James at Spanish Town Hospital; Dr Ellena Codrington at Port Antonio Hospital; Dr Tanya Hamilton Johnson, who is in charge at St Ann's Bay Hospital; Dr Sharon Walker, who recently took over from Dr Cecil Batchelor at Princess Margaret Hospital in Morant Bay, St Thomas; Dr Dingle Spence at Hope Institute; Dr Michelle-Ann Richards Dawson, the leading woman at Bustamante Hospital for Children; Dr Terry Baker at National Chest Hospital; and Dr Patrice Monthrope at Lucea Hospital.
Minister of Health and Wellness Dr Chris Tufton suggested, among other things, that women often stretched out a gentler hand in dealing with the sick, and had now commanded the confidence of those seeking medical care.
Dean of the Faculty of Medical Sciences at The University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona Campus, Dr Tomlin Paul, said that nearly three quarters of the students who enter the institution were women, who were selected based purely on merit, which has become part of the norm in the Jamaican society today.
Professor of Anatomical Pathology in the Department of Pathology at the Faculty of Medical Sciences at The UWI, Dr Carlos Escoffery, said it was not a surprise that women were dominating the public and private health sectors, as they had adequately positioned themselves for that positive movement from their student days at The UWI.
