Tufton assures Barry Wint Scholarship applicants, ‘no need to worry’

Health and Wellness Minister Dr Christopher Tufton has given an assurance that some 435 applications from individuals for the Barry Wint Memorial Scholarship Fund are to be processed, and have not been rejected.

“All the (those) names have been sent up and my understanding is that the Ministry of Health and Wellness is now, through the HR Department, processing those,” said Tufton.

"Over the next few days we should see a list sent to the institutions. I want to just encourage those students not to panic because the processing will be completed in short order, and they should be fine,” the minister assured.

He was responding to recent concerns from applicants who are facing difficulties securing the required three guarantors, during a press conference at Iberostar Resort in Montego Bay, St James on Wednesday.

Named in honour of former chief medical officer, Dr Barry Wint, the $2.5 billion scholarship provides an opportunity for students to have their public health studies financed by the Government.

As part of the arrangements, they are to be bonded to work with the Government for an agreed period of time.

Valued at $2.5 billion, the scholarship programme, which will make $500 million available each year for the next five years, was opened for applications on July 8.

It provides an opportunity for individuals to have their public health studies financed by the Government of Jamaica.

The introduction of the scholarship was announced by the Tufton during his Sectoral Budget presentation in Parliament in May of this year.

The scholarship is open to Jamaicans pursuing studies in, among other areas, medical technology, human resources for health, epidemiology, health records management, hospital/health care management, information systems for health, pharmacy, dentistry, health economics, as well as nursing and medicine.