New Limb, New Life

The Ministries of Health and Wellness and Labour and Social Security have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to implement the ‘New Limb, New Life’ Initiative. The $50-million initiative aims to provide for patients who are losing limbs due to a health condition or trauma with prostheses.

Dr. Tufton informed that under the initiative, the Health Ministry will collaborate with the Jamaica Council for Persons with Disabilities (JCPD) to identify beneficiaries. “The Ministry of Health will not determine who these beneficiaries are. We will hand that over to the Disabilities Foundation through the Ministry of Labour because they currently have a database, and that database is a revolving base, [and] that’s where persons with disabilities go,” he stated.

Dr. Tufton indicated that the programme aims to support persons who cannot afford to acquire a prosthetic leg or arm. Dr. Tufton pointed out that close to 90 per cent of persons who lose a limb each year do so due to non-communicable diseases (NCDs), particularly diabetes.

“That’s a major health concern, and part of our intention is to give those persons a second chance… help them to reintegrate into society because there are a lot of mental health issues associated [with] losing a limb. The New Limb, New Life programme supports the ‘#KnowYourNumbers’ initiative, which aims to get Jamaicans to do regular screenings to ascertain their health status and modify their behaviour to reduce illness and premature death.

 

Funding: The New Limb, New Life programme costs approximately $ 50 million.