Your news in a nutshell
- KPH bleeding from cost of gunshot wound treatments
- Digicel suspends new maintenance fee
- 200 disaster shelters to be delisted
- JPS loses battle to impose $4.3 billion bill on customers
- Caribbean drinking more soda than rest of world
- Security forces should decide areas for special zones
1. KPH bleeding from cost of gunshot wound treatments
A flare-up of violence over the past few days across sections of the capital city has plunged the Kingston Public Hospital (KPH) into crisis, forcing management to take emergency-like measures in order to manage a surge in demand for critical-care services. See full story on The Gleaner’s website.
2. Digicel suspends new maintenance fee
The Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR) said telecommunications provider Digicel yesterday advised that it has indefinitely halted the recent levy of a prepaid maintenance fee to customers whose monthly spend is less than J$50. The action followed the OUR’s intervention in response to Digicel’s implementation of the fee effective June 22. See full story on The Gleaner’s website.
3. 2o0 disaster shelters to be delisted
Local Government Minister Desmond McKenzie says that as part of a cost-saving exercise, the Government will be taking steps to close approximately 200 of the 900 disaster shelters across the country. McKenzie, who was addressing municipal corporation disaster coordinators and public relations officers in a special meeting at the Hyatt Ziva Hotel in Rose Hall, Montego Bay on Wednesday, was giving details of the islandwide plans in preparation for the 2017 hurricane season. See full story on The Gleaner’s website.
4. JPS loses battle to impose $4.3 billion bill on customers
The Jamaica Public Service Company has lost its court battle to recover $4.3 billion from customers for payments it made to workers during a reclassification exercise. Jamaica’s final court, the United Kingdom-based Privy Council yesterday ruled against an appeal filed by the JPS challenging the decision of the Court of Appeal. See full story on The Gleaner’s website.
5. Caribbean drinking more soda than rest of world
Caribbean people love their soda – that sugary non-alcoholic drink – and it is partly why persons from the region consume twice the amount an individual does elsewhere. But, it is leading to an unhealthy society marked by early and preventable deaths due to issues such as diabetes and hypertension, according to a report on the evaluation of the implementation of the 2009 CARICOM Heads of Government Port of Spain Non-communicable Diseases (NCD) Summit Declaration. See full story on The Gleaner’s website.
6. Security forces should decide areas for special zones
While fully supportive of the proposed Zones of Special Operations Bill, which is expected to significantly affect St James, the nation’s undisputed murder capital, government Senator Charles Sinclair says that he has no desire to single out any particular communities in the parish for immediate attention. See full story on The Gleaner’s website.
