Curing hospitals
IT IS patently clear that Jamaica requires more resources than governments have been willing to invest in our healthcare system in order to deliver quality service to its people. It is obvious that without this commitment, the funding gaps in healthcare will ensure that institutions continue to fail in their quest to provide best-practice standards.
The primary objective of a health delivery system is to enable citizens to receive cost-efficient care in a timely manner. Successive Jamaican governments have ambitiously expressed the desire to achieve this objective. Despite numerous initiatives, many of the old problems persist.
A healthcare system is as strong as its weakest link. It is unfortunate that Jamaica is constantly struggling to address these weak links in its healthcare system. We refer specifically to lack of resources, shortage of manpower, rundown equipment, and overcrowding. These are some of the factors that prevent poor Jamaicans from enjoying optimal health.
Even though Jamaica has made credible strides in areas such as immunisation programmes and maternal health, we are still a long way from delivering timely and efficient healthcare to the poorest in society who depend on public institutions for their care.
This week, the opposition spokesman on health, Dr Dayton Campbell, highlighted the difficulties faced by medical professionals in some of these institutions as they struggle to meet patients’ needs. Dr Campbell blamed poor management for some of the problems.
Health Minister Dr Christopher Tufton has acknowledged that there are resource problems, compounded by greater demands and ageing plants. Dr Tufton has advocated an approach that favours the building of alliances between the public and private sector, including hospitals and insurance companies. Indeed, public-private partnerships can make a difference, and it goes beyond donating aid to build sustainable infrastructure.
The Ministry of Health is expected to make an announcement on the concept of feeless service at hospitals in the new year. There is a long-held view that persons who can afford to pay for their healthcare should be obliged to do so while protecting the most vulnerable in society who may not be able to meet their financial obligations.
LACK OF RESOURCES
Venerable institutions such as the Victoria Jubilee and Kingston Public Hospitals are not able to provide the standard of care expected from them because of lack of resources. Even small but essential items such as stretchers and wheelchairs, which play an important role in routine service, exist in tatters and tell a story of neglect. What about core medical equipment?
Last year, we heard of similar difficult situations in other hospitals where staff were improvising because even items like linen were in short supply.
Things came to a boil at the Victoria Jubilee Hospital this week when the one working elevator went on the blink. Two other elevators had been out for many months. Images of porters wheeling patients up many flights of stairs put into focus the precarious situation.
A weak health system is a danger to the citizens of a country. We hope that Dr Tufton’s review of the scrapping of hospital user fees 10 years ago will include steps to address the challenges that are faced by our public medical institutions.