BAMP: How much will be allocated to health-care sector?

 

THE Barbados Association of Medical Practitioners (BAMP) is eager to hear how the funds to be collected by way of the National Social Responsibility Levy will be utilised in the public health-care sector.
 
That’s according to President of BAMP, Dr. P. Abdon DaSilva, who said they appreciate that the Budget is only a platform for introducing the Government’s plans, and that indicating how those plans will be put into operation is another task.
 
He made the point while acknowledging that the $142.1 million in additional annual revenue to be realised from the levy will not all go to health care. Nonetheless, he said it is welcomed as it should help to address some of the challenges being experienced in the sector. With that in mind, he questioned whether what the Minister of Finance, Christopher Sinckler, proposed by way of the levy, will reduce the need for supplementaries to meet shortfalls in the public health sector. In that vein, BAMP’s chief affirmed the doctors’ willingness to meet with the Finance Minister to discuss the future of health care in Barbados as it relates to finances.
 
“As far as I am concerned it is an equitable tax – most people if not everyone will be contributing something to it. Now my difficulty is that I am not sure how much of the funds that will be raised are specifically earmarked for the QEH [Queen Elizabeth Hospital] and for the other institutions – the Psychiatric Hospital, the polyclinics, the Geriatric Hospital and the Drug Service. Also, when the QEH gets their portion of these funds, how are they going to use it?” he explained to The Barbados Advocate.
 
His comments came as he indicated that he understands that a large portion of the 11 per cent of the Government’s budget currently earmarked for health care goes towards salaries. 
 
If that holds true with this injection of funds, he is questioning then how much money will be left to improve the system, in particular at the QEH, and ensure that the QEH keeps going on a day to day basis without shortages.
 
He added, “So are the funds going to go towards maintaining the infrastructure? Are the funds going to go towards having a reliable source of medicines and other supplies for the QEH that notoriously go short ever so often? Are there going to be some evidenced based practices implemented in the QEH so that we are limiting wastage? Are the funds going to be adequate to maintain a well-functioning system and a well-functioning institution? These would be my major concerns.”
 
The BAMP President made the point as he suggested that some of the money could go towards getting all of the departments housed in the Lions Eye Care Centre built in the 1990s and officially opened in 2013 at the QEH, fully operational.
 
“If you speak to the ophthalmologists they are lamenting the fact that the operating theatres are not yet functioning, and no doubt the ophthalmologists will be making their appeal for assistance. 
 
“The cardiologists had some semblance of an opening of the Cardiac Suite in the same building a few years ago, but as far as I know it is not up and running to the extent that they want it,” he explained.
 
The general practitioner’s remarks came as he suggested that Government must also be mindful of the expectations that Barbadians may have for the delivery of health care on account of the levy being imposed.
 
“There is some history to it, when the hospital moved from how it was being run, to be run by a board, I am pretty certain that most Barbadians if not all Barbadians expected that they would get more and better treatment from the QEH. So it will be only reasonable now for people to expect that if they are paying a tax specifically designed at getting funds to the health institutions, whether it is the QEH or the Psychiatric Hospital or the polyclinics, I think it will be only fair for people to expect and demand more and better services,” he stated. (JRT)

 

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