Opposition Leader: Health care policies hurting Barbadians

Government’s health care strategy has come under heavy criticism from the Leader of the Opposition, Mia Mottley, who contends that initiatives introduced over the last several years have created stark disparities in the health outcomes of Barbadians.

 

As such, Mottley maintained that the Barbados Labour Party (BLP), which she leads, cannot conceive of rebuilding Barbados to make it work again for all Barbadians, without addressing the issues of health and wellness as a national priority. 

 

She made the point while delivering the feature address on the topic “The Vision for Healthcare in Barbados”, Friday night at the 80th University of the West Indies (UWI)/ Barbados Association of Medical Practitioners (BAMP) Awards Ceremony, held in the Henry Fraser Lecture Theatre, Cave Hill Campus. 

 

“We see health as more than just about curative interventions and medical conditions. It is about addressing the social and economic conditions which make people ill in the first place. We don’t want to only treat people in the hospital, we want to keep them out of any hospital,” she maintained.

 

She added, “The reality is that in the last seven years we’ve seen economic decline and this has increased significantly inequality in our country, and in healthcare this is most evident.” 

 

She bolstered the argument as she noted that before the economic crisis more Barbadians preferred to attend private doctors, paying out of pocket, but she said the Barbados Drug Service reform introduced by the Government resulted in a “marked shift” or “shove” from the private sector to the public. Mottley told the audience comprised primarily of doctors, that between 2010 and 2011 there was a 6 500 increase in visits within the public sector for major chronic diseases. Those figures, she said, moved from 80 104 to 86 528.

 

The Opposition Leader added while the number of visits within the public sector remains on the rise, Government is spending notably less money on health care. At present, she said that figure is $7.60 in each $100 spent, down from $12.40 in 2007. With that in mind, she made mention of the processing fee introduced on prescriptions for drugs on the Drug Formulary, which she noted saw the number of prescriptions processed in the private pharmacies dropping and a spike for such prescriptions in the public sector. The latter, she revealed, moved from 924 461 in 2011 to 1 142 913 in 2014. 

 

Mottley’s comments came as she touched on the issue of chronic non communicable diseases (CNCDs).She is adamant that there is need for early and more comprehensive testing of Barbadians and she is suggesting that there are at least six basic tests that all persons, regardless of income levels, should take at the appropriate age and intervals. These tests, she said, are blood sugar, kidney function, cholesterol, mammograms and pap smears, prostate examinations and colonoscopies.   

 

“In addition, we must encourage healthy eating and create policies which promote exercise and recreation. Our job is also to make it affordable and your job is to help make it happen. We must incentivise more local production in fruit and vegetables to help bring the prices down and we must be prepared equally to treat to the issue of duties on fruits and vegetables,” she added. 

 

(JRT)