MINISTER of Health and Wellness Dr Christopher Tufton has hailed the National Health Fund (NHF) as the cornerstone of health-care financing in Jamaica.

He noted that over its 20-year history the agency has provided critical and transformative services which have significantly improved health-care access and affordability in Jamaica.

“When the NHF came on the scene [it] provided an important intervention for what the Jamaican people needed, and what is important is that the NHF has continued to evolve to provide solutions… and to adjust [to address] challenges,” he said.

Dr Tufton was speaking at the NHF 20th Anniversary Awards Gala on July 27 at The Jamaica Pegasus hotel in New Kingston.

He said that the fund is a critical partner as the Government carries out its mandate to build out the public health infrastructure to ensure improved outcomes for citizens.

Chief executive officer of the NHF Everton Anderson, in his address, said that the work of the staff of the NHF has enabled the institution to realise its mission of affordable health care for Jamaicans.

“The NHF has stood as a beacon of hope, healing and touching countless lives and making a significant impact on Jamaica. We have done significant work and we could not have done it without the excellent staff to [enable] the NHF to achieve its goals,” he noted.

During the function, some 360 staff members were awarded for their long and dedicated service to the NHF.

The NHF’s mission is to improve the effectiveness and affordability of health-care delivery by providing funding for specified health-care benefits, promotions, and projects.

This is achieved by helping Jamaicans access medication in the public and private sectors through the NHF card, delivering inpatient and outpatient pharmacy services, and providing grants to institutions for infrastructure development, training, medical equipment, and transportation.

Since the NHF’s establishment in 2003, there has been approximately $60 billion in subsidy payouts and approximately $80.7 billion spent on the public sector pharmacy subsidy programme. More than 600,000 beneficiaries have been enrolled as of June 30.

“When we started this programme, we were processing under one million prescriptions. We are now a little over three million prescriptions,” Anderson indicated.

In addition, the number of private pharmacy partners has increased from about 10 to 460.

There have been approximately 1.3 million screening tests done in the last 15 years, and 863 projects have been approved at a cost of $22.8 billion.