EDITORIAL: Wanted: innovation in Government

There are clear indications that there are persons in the Ministry of Health who want to foster creativity and innovation in their management of the health sector. We refer to the plan to lure doctors to rural health-care facilities through a programme of incentives.

Speaking about the plan earlier this week, Health Minister Rudyard Spencer identified student-loan forgiveness and housing incentives as key elements of a programme that would see doctors posted in health centres and hospitals in rural Jamaica for a period of three years. This would expose rural folk to the same type of top-notch service which is now only available in the Corporate Area of Kingston and St Andrew and the Second City, Montego Bay. It is common for patients in rural parishes to travel many miles from their home to seek medical attention at considerable cost to them.

Mr Spencer is due to hold discussions with the doctors in order to take this plan further. We anticipate that the medical association will have its own suggestions on how to finesse this plan and hope that this idea can become a reality in a short time.

We find this proposal laudable, not so much for its groundbreaking impact, but more so because this kind of innovative thinking has been lacking in the public sector for too long. As we seek to emerge from the current economic crisis, we can no longer put off attending to the pressing economic and technological demands of the 21st century.

Solution-oriented public sector

There is urgent need for public-sector leaders to focus on exploring ideas, generating possibilities and looking for solutions in promoting economic development. It's a lesson the private sector has learnt, because it has come to understand that in the current global competitive market environment, there has to be constant innovation to produce new products and services. The companies that apply critical-thinking techniques to corporate problems are the ones that will emerge from the current economic slump stronger and healthier. Innovation will make the difference between recovery and recession.

But innovative thought and action ought not be the exclusive domain of the private sector. The bureaucratic public sector must become more nimble and committed to reform. Innovation cannot be done piecemeal or sporadically. It has to become entrenched in the culture.

We need a public sector that is interested in cultivating new ideas, entertaining opposite views, replicating workable solutions and establishing partnerships, all in order to spur innovation.

We cannot overlook the major role that the Ministry of Education needs to play in ensuring that graduates entering the workforce have the capacity to think creatively, innovatively, logically and critically. If the curriculum needs tweaking to reflect this focus, this ought to be done as a matter of urgency.

These graduates will then be able to apply their new skills to produce breakthrough ideas and solutions to many of the old problems which are proving to be so challenging to our citizens.

One good idea does not an innovative government make. We are hoping that in the months ahead, we will see other laudable initiatives emerging from the Government and many of its agencies.

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