Barbados tough economic times have hit physicians in private practice in that Country and President of the Barbados Association of Medical Practitioners, Dr. Carlos Chase told Starcom News last week that some doctors are reporting seeing one third less than the usual number of patients as cash-strapped patients now turn to an over-burdened public health system.
“In fact, some doctors are even doing second jobs like real estate”, he said.
The island has seven polyclinics which operate at normal business hours which have seen massive increases in public patients using their services while their pharmacies are also over-burdened. The doctors and pharmacists are saying the drop off in patients and patients filling out prescriptions at private pharmacies and using private GP services is “unprecedented”.
According to reports in the press, there has been a 21% increase in patients now visiting the seven polyclinics which are still operating with the same staff since 2007 with just two part-time doctors add to the staff. To date, that number still stands at 46 full-time medical doctors.
Sources say that attendance at polyclinics has risen to over 500 000 persons and is expected to rise over 600 000 as the economic problems in Barbados dig deeper into the pockets of the lower, working class and middle classes of Barbados.
Polyclinics pharmacies are also reporting an increase in patients using the public pharmacies at polyclinics to fill out prescriptions while private pharmacies are seeing a massive fall off. Despite this, the Barbados Drug Service says it is still able to grapple with a 50% increase in prescription requests.
President of the Association of Pharmacy Owners, David Lewis said that his members have said that they are suffering economically with a 35% drop in business as more and more people go to the island’s polyclinics.
Pharmacies not paid for May
Interestingly, there had been reports by Caribbean Medical News and other news houses of shortages of several medications due to the Barbados Ministry of Health’s then inability to pay various distributors for medication, a situation that the Minister of Health John Boyce and CEO of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Dexter James both assured the public would be immediately resolved. The QEH Dialysis Unit was plagued with an infection and the private service fees had also been increased.
Hardest hit are also the private pharmacies close to polyclinics.
“Things are very tight. People are under very tight budgets and are waiting to see if they can get paid on time”, said Lewis. Lewis also noted that pharmacies were not paid by Government for May 2014.
Meanwhile, Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Elizabeth Ferdinand said that the situation is challenging.
“We are doing the best we can, people have been turned away if overwhelmed on any day but we are coping and are still offering good service and maintaining quality standards” she told Sanka Price of the Nation Newspaper.
