By Caribbean Medical News Staff
No sooner had the various medical practitioners spoken about the burden of Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) on the QEH and the population, has the CEO of the QEH Dr. Dexter James said that the Kidney Dialysis Unit at the island’s lone hospital is under major stress.
According to sources, around four new patients start dialysis treatment every month and the rising cost to the hospital may force the QEH to introduce fees.
Just recently, the CEO said that a cashier would also be placed in the hospital for non-nationals without the requisite ID to pay for services. The hospital chief also indicated that user-fees may be introduced for those who “are able to pay” and the hospital would make such a determination through means testing if it became necessary. The QEH has been operating under a system similar to the NHS in the UK and is funded by taxpayer monies.
However burdensome debt in the country has pushed the country into austerity measures and while free University tuition has been removed, the “threat” of user-fees now hangs over the head of an already cash-strapped populace.
But the CEO insists that the hospital is just as cash-strapped having suffered a major blow to its budget in 2013, crowded ER’s with patients waiting up to 52 hours, over-crowded polyclinics which are reputed to be understaffed and drug and supply shortage that has caused the Barbados Association of Medical Practitioners much concern. So concerned are they, that BAMP has issued statements and threatened to see only emergency patients in the past until the situation is rectified. The doctors are not willing to be a part of compromised patient care as they see it, or to put their reputations on the line, according to reports.
Meanwhile, CEO of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital says that the government spends about $14 million to care for the 171 kidney patients, suggesting that this expenditure was a “tremendous burden” on the hospital’s budget. James said that despite the fact that the entire cost was paid by the QEH, in some cases kidney dialysis had to be outsourced to private institutions or have patients use their own peritoneal dialysis system at home.
This may soon be coming to an end.
“Part of reducing the burden to us is taking personal responsibility for your health care,” he said.
