Jamaicans to have increased access to diagnostic services

JAMAICANS NEEDING diagnostic services will have other options besides publichealth facilities come October.

The Ministry of Health and Wellness has forged a partnership with 10 private radiology and diagnostic service providers across the island to complement hospital resources.

At the launch and signing ceremony for the Enhancing Healthcare Services Delivery Project, Technical Adviser Professor Archibald McDonald said that the partnership is not a short-term response.

“We are using the spare capacity in the private sector to enhance healthcare in the public sector. The project seeks to address three areas: shorten the waiting time for surgery, shorten the waiting time for investigations ... and we’ll also be working in collaboration with the Ministry of Local Government to get the social cases out of hospital beds,” McDonald said.

McDonald added that it is intended that the public hospitals will learn lessons from their relations with the private sector about how to better operate their units.

According to Minister of Health and Wellness Dr Christopher Tufton, it is estimated that some 60,000 Jamaicans will benefit.

This comes at a cost of more than $200 million to the Government,for the first year of the two-year programme.

Tufton said that negotiations had been done and the prices agreed on are below the existing market value.

“We are focusing on a few services now. Possibly, we will expand overtime. CT scans, MRI scans, ultrasounds, endoscopy and histopathology – those are the key services that form part of this agreement, and many public health facilities throughout Jamaica, at any point in time, will not be able to provide those services,” said Tufton.