Mr Hylton was speaking at a gathering of the business community in July. He also refuted claims that a developed health and wellness sector in Jamaica would widen the gap between the rich and the poor.
He said: “The poor will actually benefit from what would be centres of excellence created here in Jamaica to do things and to provide services, some of which are not now locally available, and means that they would have to find foreign exchange and travel abroad to get those services. We’ll bring those services here and they’ll be accessible to the wider public.
“Public/private partnership will be beneficial, because in most instances, the doctors are asking the government to partner with them and there are a number of good reasons why that is so. Part of it is providing land as part of the investment, and I think the government is keen to do that because through that kind of exchange, the government can leverage certain requirements as it relates to the wider population.”
Meanwhile, medical director of EMedical Global Jamaica Limited, Dr Neville Graham, highlighted Singapore and India as ideal models for the advantages created for local economies by health tourism.