THE Opposition Spokesman on Health Dr Kenneth Baugh says Government’s austerity programme has bee having a negative impact on the health sector, which he said is now in a ‘precarious position’.

“It is ironical that while the nurses claim that they are understaffed and have vacancies, citing the presence of one nurse per ward, several recently graduated nurses have failed to find employment,” Dr Baugh told the House of Representatives, Tuesday in the sectoral debate.

“The curtailment of nursing sessions at the Kingston Public Hospital (KPH) has meant that operating time has had to be shortened, making waiting lists for surgery much longer, even for urgent cases. Doctors are very concerned about the effect on people with chronic diseases, especially those with diabetes, whose erratic control results in a higher incidence of complications,” Baugh said.

“Of greatest concern are the patients with cancer because of the high cost of treatment and, in some cases, the long delays in getting treatment…,” Baugh said.

“The health delivery system has been like a car running on an empty tank, with fumes only, for a long time. It has been dislodged from its precarious perch and has gone into a state of collapse,” he said, noting that Jamaica’s expenditure on health, at 5.2 per cent of GDP, places it at 136 in the world, “a lowly place in the ranking”.

He also pointed out that the number of physicians per 1,000 population, which is set at a minimum of 2.3/1000 by the WHO (World Health Organisation), is at 0.41 in Jamaica, ranking the country at 129 in the world.

Baugh also told the House that Jamaica’s maternal mortality has remained at 110 female deaths per 100,000, “stubbornly refusing to budge for more than a decade”, compared to Cuba at 73, Mauritius at 60, Barbados at 51, Trinidad and Tobago at 46, Costa Rica at 40, United Kingdom 12, and Sweden at four.

He said that this is an indication of the state of the local health services, and suggested that Government’s austerity programme and its impact on health delivery systems could become a tipping point for the Jamaican health sector.

Dr Baugh pointed to a number of issues, which he said, were signs of Government’s tight fiscal policy and its effects on the health sector. Among them were:

* the failure to maintain elevators at Kingston Public Hospital (KPH) to the point where all four have failed, causing cancellations of surgery and other critical interventions;

* autoclaves at the KPH being out of service, necessitating the farming out of sterilisation services all over Kingston; and,

* the lack of essential medical sundries, IV (intravenous) fluids in particular, has become a critical problem over the past few weeks.

“Clearly, the austerity programme is having an effect on the delivery of health services and the ability of patients to access adequate care. The question has to be asked: Is there a better way of coping with the fallout of the economy; are there other options? I believe it is necessary to outline coping strategies for the health sector while, at the same time, addressing the issue of the choices to be made by a government,” he suggested.