Over 40,000 Jamaicans Benefit from Outsourced Diagnostic Services
Nov. 11, 2021
KINGSTON, Jamaica. Thursday, November 11, 2021: Since the implementation of the Ministry of Health & Wellness’ Enhancing Healthcare Services Delivery Project in September 2019 over 40,000 Jamaicans have benefited from diagnostic services with some 40,615 tests completed under diagnostic component of the project. The diagnostic services included CT scans, MRIs, ultrasounds, mammograms and fluoroscopic studies.
Of the 40,615 tests competed to date, CT Scans accounted for 65.26%; MRIs 13.45% and Ultrasounds 16.67% of examinations requested by the different hospitals, with a higher percentage of females (53.06%) accessing services than males (46.94%).
Speaking in Parliament on Wednesday (November 10), Minister of Health & Wellness, Dr. the Hon. Christopher Tufton noted that “this is a partnership between the public and private sectors with 16 private service providers across the island providing national coverage of participating health facilities. These services were provided at a cost of J$1,421,313,618 and Jamaicans no longer have to wait or go without diagnostic tests. Good things are happening in public health.”
The Ministry of Health and Wellness has conducted its internal assessment of the project and preliminary findings indicate that, bed-stay time has been reduced on average by two days. “This is very significant as with the over 360,000 patients that are seen in hospital each year, this reduction is not only a significant cost saving but has resulted in, outside of COVID-19 beds, no overcrowding in the general hospital wards,” Dr. Tufton added. The Ministry is now completing the procurement for an independent firm to review the project to validate the impact of the interventions of service delivery in hospitals.
The Enhancing Healthcare Services Delivery Project was designed as part of the Ministry’s short and medium term strategy for the reduction in wait time and overcrowding in hospitals by outsourcing diagnostic services; removal of social cases from hospitals and the outsourcing of elective surgeries.