Government To Strengthen Partnerships With Health Care Providers

GOVERNMENT TO STRENGTHEN PARTNERSHIP WITH
PRIVATE HEALTH CARE PROVIDERS:

Prime Minister Bruce Golding says government is looking at strengthening the partnership with private hospitals and medical facilities as in many instances they have been under-utilized while on the government side, these facilities are being over-utilized.

Speaking at the official opening of the refurbished and expanded Hargreaves Memorial Hospital in Mandeville yesterday (Aug 27), Mr. Golding said private hospitals “…offer important facilities to those who have the resources to access them. It is a fact that the majority of people cannot afford them, but it is good that they have these facilities...because if they were not there, it is the public facilities that would have to carry the added burden.”

The 80 year old Hargreaves Memorial hospital was rescued from bankruptcy by Mandeville business leaders, Calvin and Sylvia Lyn who purchased the facility and have turned it into Mandeville’s premier private health care provider. The new hospital offers 24 hour individualized patient care for the island’s southern region; and its services will include gynecology, surgery, pediatrics, obstetrics, internal medicine, renal dialysis and orthopedics.

Mr. Golding said that for many years there has been an arrangement between the government and private medical facilities, whereby concessions are granted on equipment and various other items…In return, those private facilities offer care to public patients. He said very often those services include diagnostic procedures which government facilities are not able to provide and which are normally reserved for patients who would never be able to afford the cost. He said the Minister of Health Ruddy Spencer is having discussion to see how this partnership can be strengthened and expanded. Present at the opening ceremony were the Ministers of Health, Ruddy Spencer and Finance Minister Audley Shaw.