Hard truths

THE latest review of Jamaica’s public health sector presents a mixed bag of progress and troubling setbacks, with improvements in infrastructure and staffing overshadowed by soaring medicine costs, weaknesses in primary health care, and persistently high maternal and neonatal deaths. Most alarming is the finding that complications from non-communicable diseases (NCDs) account for nearly four in every five deaths in Jamaica, while too many patients are turning up at hospitals with conditions already at an advanced stage. The findings are contained in the Jamaica Health Public Expenditure Review, prepared by the World Bank at the request of the Planning Institute of Jamaica (PIOJ) and the Ministry of Health and Wellness, covering the years 2016 to 2022.

Health and Wellness Minister Dr Christopher Tufton, who presented aspects of the report, along with the Government’s response, to Parliament on Tuesday, did not shy away from the findings, describing the review as “candid” and declaring that the Government accepts its conclusions. “The review asks how much Jamaica spends on health, how well that money is spent, and what results it buys for our people,” Tufton explained. He noted that the review measures Jamaica’s progress against the World Bank’s 2017 review, and compares the island’s performance with countries of similar demographic profiles. He told Parliament that NCDs cause close to 80 per cent of deaths, maternal and neonatal mortality remain too high, and Jamaica’s per capita health expenditure is still below that of comparable countries, including Brazil, Grenada, Guyana, St Lucia, Dominica, Suriname, and Colombia. Too much of the country’s health care spending, he acknowledged, is also being channelled into expensive late-stage hospital care, while medicine costs…