Overseas Jamaicans give US$300m to health sector

Jamaica’s healthcare sector benefited to the tune of some US$300 million last year. This was stated by Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr Jacquiline Bisasor-McKenzie at the Diaspora Conference at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade.

Bisasor-McKenzie said that there are other areas in which the diaspora could make a contribution, such as telemedicine and the establishment of a database.

The establishment the database would allow for the continuity of exchanges between Jamaica and the diaspora.

Claudette Powell, a member of the Diaspora Northeast Health Task Force, pointed to the number of medical missions that visit Jamaica yearly, offering services to Jamaicans. She noted however, that with the establishment of a database, there would be information about the health professionals in Jamaica with whom members of the missions interacted.

She pointed out that in a number of instances, after the missions leave Jamaica, there is no follow-up treatment to patients who were seen by the mission members.

Powell said that this database will help with patients’ follow-up treatment. Such a database would also allow Jamaica to tap into nurses in the diaspora in the various disciplines who can be called on.

The Panellists agreed that many Jamaicans in the healthcare sector who migrate would give back to their country, but the absence of the necessary database hampers such efforts.

In the area of telehealth, it was agreed that this is another area in which members of the diaspora could assist Jamaica.

In the area of mental health Bisasor-McKenzie said that the goal is to move away from institutionalisation to a community-based treatment policy.

She noted that there were backlogs in surgical procedures because many operating theatres have closed, some 500 nurses left the system, and the procurement of supplies were not keeping pace with needs.