High demand for GraceKennedy medical support

BY ALICIA DUNKLEY Observer senior reporter dunkleya@jamaicaobserver.com

Thursday, February 09, 2012

CHALLENGING economic times and a pressured public health care system has resulted in an influx of Jamaicans seeking aid from the health programmes operated by the Grace and Staff Community Development Foundation — the charitable arm of GraceKennedy Ltd.

"There has been an increase without a doubt, this year," executive director of the GraceKennedy Foundation, Caroline Mahfood told editors and reporters during the weekly Observer Monday Exchange held at the newspaper's Beechwood Avenue headquarters in St Andrew.

Mahfood was responding to a query as to whether or not persons had been turning to their health programmes in increased numbers due to the strain on public health facilities following the removal of user fees in 2008 by the previous Jamaica Labour Party administration.

"We actually have put in place a relationship with a pharmacy downtown that provides persons with that kind of assistance and what we try to do is assist persons in getting to the right places if we can. If it's medication that they definitely cannot access through regular health services we try to assist them," she said.

"I think what has happened is sometimes the hospital pharmacies don't have the drugs that have been prescribed because it's not available so they have to find an outside source to fill them," she added.

Mahfood said that the foundation has also been helping to fund the Geriatric Clinic of the Salvation Army as well.

The GraceKennedy Foundation executive director said that if the company was to get other grant funding, it would be able to expend more money in this area.

"If we are getting other kinds of assistance then we can use some of the other funds we have to help with health," Mahfood said.

Public relations advisor to GK, Berl Francis told the Observer that between 2010 and 2011 there was a 48.5 per cent increase in the number of persons seeking assistance from the company for health-related issues.

Meanwhile, between 2009 and 2010 there was an 80 per cent increase in the amount of money spent on health assistance. The company said that it could not speak to the volume of persons because it had to turn away many individuals who had sought its assistance.

In 2008 the then government removed user fees from all hospitals with the exception of the University Hospital of the West Indies and health centres, in fulfilment of one of its campaign promises.

That arrangement has however caused it to be heavily criticised, due to concerns that the sector was under-resourced prior to the change, and had come under heavier strain since the programme's inception.

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High demand for GraceKennedy medical support