Jamaica’s health-care inadequacies are many and varied, and, sadly, the costs involved are astronomical.

Back in March, for example, this newspaper highlighted the growing crisis of kidney (renal) failure which is often the last stage for people suffering chronic illnesses such as diabetes and hypertension.

Back then, we noted that renal patients were forking out in the region of $45,000 weekly at private institutions for life-saving dialysis, which is the artificial process of removing liquid waste from the body when kidneys fail.

We pointed out then that, while dialysis treatment is free at public hospitals with renal units, long waiting lists — numbering hundreds in some cases — as a result of too-few such facilities, mean that some people die before getting to the head of the queue.

In truth, the high costs of treatment for various diseases, including those related to lifestyle and terminal conditions, are common knowledge.

Violent crime, road collisions, and reckless crashes also weigh heavily on the public purse.

The resource challenges facing the health sector are again to the fore with the recent early morning cooking gas explosion in Burnt Savannah, St Elizabeth, which left 14-year-old Miss Ackalia Dunkley with third-degree burns.

Frantic efforts to save her life led to donations totalling US$45,000 in 24 hours which covered an air ambulance flight to hospital in the United States.

This case follows that of 13-year-old Miss Adrianna Laing of Westmoreland, who suffered severe burns in a house fire which took the lives of her three brothers in September last year. Thanks to donors, Miss Laing was also airlifted to the United States where she had successful surgeries.

The St Elizabeth fire tragedy has revived long-standing calls going back years for a unit to treat severe burns in Jamaica. No one disputes the need. Obviously, the problem is cost.

While the State-owned oil refinery Petrojam reportedly said last year that it intended to raise funds for such a project, nothing of consequence has so far happened.

We are told it will cost roughly $200 million to get the project started.

Health and Wellness Minister Dr Christopher Tufton tells us that, “A facility to deal with burns is ultimately where we are going, but the reality is that a burn unit that treats [severe] burns… is very expensive to build and to maintain. The truth is that most times it will be unoccupied because people don’t always need that level of treatment…”

We believe a realistic option is public/private partnership.

We recall in August 2021 Mr Stephen Josephs, project manager of Sanmerna Foundation — an affiliate of Sanmerna Paper Products Ltd — urged corporate Jamaica to support construction of a burn unit. While it was costly, his organisation had started “the design… with overseas partners”, Mr Josephs reportedly said.

However, given the sheer scope of the challenges facing the public health sector and the well-known budgetary constraints, we believe serious thought should be given to a formal, properly thought out, comprehensive public/private partnership way beyond a burn unit.

Surely, it would not be unreasonable for Dr Tufton and his senior staff to sit with representatives of Jamaica’s business sector to explore the possibility of such a partnership for the greater good of Jamaica’s health care.