Tight budget impacts UHWI research

THE TIGHT budget on which the University Hospital of the West Indies (UHWI) operates has significantly impacted its research output, even as administrators insist they do try to make the best of the situation.

Although noting that much of the research at the Mona-based teaching institution goes through the nearby University of the West Indies, for which it was established, the hospital chairman, James Moss-Solomon, said what the medical facility can do is curtailed by the limited grant funding.

He was speaking last week during a Gleaner Editors’ Forum, at which several senior officials outlined plans for a major infrastructure overhaul of the 64-year-old institution.

“As a university, we always want to do more research, so we’re going to say that research is not enough. The impact that grant funding or reduction in grant funding has had on research output is significant. Whenever you have a shortage of resources, it is going to affect research,” admitted Dr Carl Bruce, the medical chief of staff.

“What the system is trying to do now is, by virtue of having health information systems, there are questions you can answer by querying the system, and so we’d be able to, in a short term, deliver to you the numbers that you want for a particular disease.”

Doing work on things like developing new techniques, the neurosurgeon said, take a hit because of the fall-off in grant funding.

No data was presented on the level of intake. The hospital has a budget for $2.8 billion for this fiscal year, but does not expect to get close to that given the limited subventions from regional contributing countries even with the boosting of revenue streams.