Letter of the Day | Invest in comprehensive healthcare system

THE EDITOR, Madam:

As Jamaicans continue to call for a rollback of the scandalous salary increases for the political directorate, we continue to visualise alternative uses for the resources — healthcare is one area.

The Ministry of Health and Wellness advisory on July 6, to expect longer-than-normal waiting times at public hospitals – resulting from increasing numbers of patients requiring care at accident & emergency departments – only heightens the crisis in an already-dysfunctional healthcare system that denies citizens access to good healthcare, such as the management of ongoing conditions, or critical illness and emergency treatment.

Underlying an increase in emergency cases is the fact that the ratio of doctors to patient care is way below that of other Caribbean islands.

In The Bahamas, for example, a healthy 7.7 per cent of its GDP goes to health, with 2.82 doctors per 1,000 inhabitants — in line with places like the United Kingdom and Finland, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

Cuba is 27 on the statista.com 2023 table with nearly seven doctors per 1,000 population — one of the highest ratios in the world — a reflection of the high percentage of the country’s GDP spent on healthcare (11.1 per cent).

Jamaica is ranked 67th globally by Statista. But according to the WHO, it has one doctor per 2,000 population, which is quite low on a world scale (comparable with countries like Nigeria and Fiji).

In the future, the government has to set its sights on improving life for its citizens by increasing the percentage of GDP allocated to healthcare. It can begin with channelling those resources into creating a wholly functioning healthcare system. Health is wealth, after all!

DONNA MATTIS

Advocates Network