‘We are not to waste taxpayers’ money’

WESTERN BUREAU:

HEALTH MINISTER Dr Christopher Tufton has revealed plans to conduct an audit of the government’s Enhanced Healthcare Delivery Product, which was launched in 2019 to help reduce wait-times at public health facilities, out of concern that the programme might have been abused since its inception.

In his keynote address during Thursday’s official launch of the Ministry of Health’s Compassionate Care programme for the Cambridge Health Centre in Cambridge, St James, Tufton noted that he has ordered a request to be sent to the auditor-general to, among other things, examine how certain medical equipment is serviced in light of complaints from citizens that the machinery is often broken down.

“I am of the belief that this system has outlived its useful purpose in many ways. I think it is also potentially the subject of abuse, and we are going to have to deal with it. In fact, I have asked the permanent secretary [Dunstan Bryan] to write to the auditor-general to do an audit of the programme, because I need to satisfy myself that the programme is not being abused,” said Tufton.

“I am concerned that the equipment within the hospitals are breaking down too easily, and it leads me to wonder if some of that breakdown is not a function of neglect, complacency or deliberateness. Part of that audit is going to have to be (for example), if you have a new CT scan machine or a new X-ray machine, what is the service level arrangement that you have in place to deal with that? Why would it be breaking down so often as reported by patients?” Tufton explained.

“This programme is supposed to help the people, and we are not to waste the taxpayers’ money.”

The Enhancing Healthcare Delivery Product was launched in 2019 as a public-private partnership arrangement through which patients would benefit from a range of diagnostic services to include computerised tomography (CT) scans, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), ultrasounds, mammograms, and fluoroscopic studies.

The objective of the initiative is to enable patients to access certain diagnostic services free of cost through private providers, in cases where the public hospital does not have the equipment or they are not working.

Since its launch, approximately 139,000 Jamaicans have benefitted from the outsourcing of diagnostic services.LEASING ARRANGEMENTS

Tufton told Thursday’s launch that the programme was never intended to be a long-term fix for the issue of streamlined diagnostic testing.

“What we did initially was to design the Enhanced Healthcare Delivery Project, which was essentially to outsource to private players who have diagnostic services, so when you go to the hospital and you need a CT scan or an MRI, the doctor would write you up and you go to the private player that we have a contract with, and they provide you the service and you bring back the results,” he explained.

“It was not perceived to be a long-term solution or even an ideal solution because sometimes people can’t move that easily to go to a place to get an X-ray and come back, but it was a practical response to a crisis that we perceived,” said Tufton.

He noted that a longer-term solution to the diagnostic outsourcing issue will be attempted wherein needed equipment will be leased from designated partners who will maintain the machinery as needed.

“When I look at how the numbers are evolving, it is quite clear that some people are doing far more tests than they probably need to, and some of the equipment are just not being maintained properly. The long-term solution, we have decided, is to engage in leasing arrangements of equipment within our hospital system,” said Tufton.

“We have started that process, and I am told that by now and next quarter, early in the new year, we will be in a position to appoint or award, depending on the procurement process, entities that will place their equipment in the hospitals, maintain the equipment so the downtime becomes minimal, and the patient will get the convenience they deserve when they need an X-ray or a CT scan in the institution as opposed to having to travel outside of the institution,” Tufton added.

christopher.thomas@gleanerjm.com