FORMER Prime Minister Bruce Golding yesterday said the no-user-fee policy implemented by his Government in 2008 should not be used as a scapegoat for the problems plaguing the hospital service, as his administration had more than doubled the budgetary allocation for the sector to cover the cost to the State.

“Let me point out that for 2007/2008, the budgetary provision (net of salaries and allowances) for the four regional authorities that administer the hospitals was $2.2 billion,” Golding said in a letter to the editor.

“At that time, the hospitals were collecting less than $1 billion annually in user fees. With the coming into effect of the no-user-fee policy in 2008/2009, the provision was more than doubled to $4.9 billion, which more than compensated for the fees that would no longer be charged. That level of support was sustained and, in fact, increased to take account of inflation, so much so, that the provision for 2011/2012 was $6.5 billion,” Golding added.

He described as ill-informed the assertion being made by some commentators that the problems besetting the hospital services stem from the decision to abolish user fees.

Golding’s letter comes as the health sector is reeling from its latest crisis — the deaths of 18 babies from health care-associated infections since June.

The disclosure came Tuesday after days of widespread reports of an infection outbreak at the neonatal intensive care unit at the University Hospital of the West Indies (UHWI).

Health Minister Dr Fenton Ferguson and his team appeared on the defensive at a press conference, packed with ministry representatives and other stakeholders in the health sector, at Jamaica House, where journalists were told that outbreaks “happen from time to time” in special-care nurseries.

Statistics presented by the ministry at the press briefing, where reporters were informed that they had only five minutes to ask questions following presentations from the minister and members of his technical team, showed that as of August, 13 babies had been infected with klebsiella at the UHWI, and that seven had died.

Before that, between June and September, eight babies were infected with another strain of Health care-associated infection (HAI) known as serratia at the hospital, resulting in one fatality.

Meanwhile, at Cornwall Regional Hospital in Montego Bay, 14 babies were infected, resulting in six deaths since September. Additionally, there were seven cases of klebsiella among newborns at that hospital between June and July, and four of those babies died.

Before this crisis, media reports highlighted the poor state of the hospital service with doctors having to resort to unconventional methods, some of which are unhygienic, to perform surgeries.

The problems have resulted in some people blaming the no-user-fee policy, arguing that hospitals have been deprived of fees that they would otherwise have received.

But yesterday, Golding pointed out that he was yet to hear anyone support this allegation with facts or statistics.

“The problem of resources in the health sector is a real issue, but the no-user-fee policy should not be pounced upon as a convenient scapegoat,” he said. “That argument simply does not pass the arithmetic test.”