…says monies spent on “wrong things”

By Devina Samaroo

The budgetary measures and allocations for the health sector for 2016 will see a further collapse of the health system, Dr Frank Anthony has forecasted.

Dr Frank Anthony

Dr Anthony, who is the Opposition Member of Parliament (MP) with responsibility for the health sector, said the 2016 $230 billion National Budget lacked vision and innovation for the development of the health sector and monies were allotted for the most unnecessary initiatives.
During a press conference on Wednesday at Freedom House, Dr Anthony heavily criticised the measures announced for the health sector and highlighted several of their weaknesses.

Drug shortage
Foremost, the politician pointed out that the system put in place along with the paltry allocation for the procurement of drugs will only further plunge the health system into crisis.
“Instead of having the Ministry of Public Health centrally procure the drugs, they’ve now put the drugs in a budget into the regions…and the Regions, we told them then, that they don’t have the capacity to be able to procure drugs for the system… It is the same thing they are doing in this budget,” Dr Anthony highlighted.
He also explained that the $6.5 billion allocation for the procurement of drugs was inadequate since almost half would go towards supplying the Georgetown Public Hospital, while the remainder would have to be split among the 10 Administrative Regions.
Notably, Government reported that over $600 million was returned to the treasury at the end of 2015 owing to the regional bodies’ failure to procure the necessary drugs to supply the various hospitals and health centres.
During the consideration of the 2015 Budget Estimates for the 10 Administrative Regions last August, Government announced that it had adopted a new procedure for the Regions to acquire their own drugs. But Opposition Chief Whip Gail Teixeira had outlined that the new policy would create a logistical nightmare with issues of transportation, storage, and the ability of the regional authorities to procure the medical supplies.
Previously, drugs were procured in bulk by the then Health Ministry and properly stored, and then distributed to the various Regions on an “as-needed” basis.
Dr Anthony is urging the Government to revert to the successful policy implemented by the former People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Administration.
Moreover, Dr Anthony implored the Government to establish a national and regional formulary (list of drugs) that are needed and make purchases accordingly.

Suicide
Dr Anthony also lambasted the Government for unnecessarily pumping money into convening a Commission of Inquiry (CoI) into suicide when the funds could be otherwise utilised to finance existing suicide prevention programmes.
“I think sometimes we are spending monies on the wrong things,” he noted.
The former Government Minister explained that under the PPP/C, a National Suicide Prevention Plan was compiled by experts and it outlined practically everything a CoI would discover.
This plan, he noted, is the same plan the Government rebranded and launched in December last. However, he said there was no adequate funding for the measures outlined in the document.

Other sectors
Dr Anthony also chastised Government for repackaging the 2015 “flagship” programme of expanding the Georgetown Public Hospital maternity ward.
He also expressed suspicions that the Government, though it spoke about the need to train more midwives, was yet to do so.
“Again, the question of improving maternal health is being paid a lip service and while it’s written nicely in the speech, not much has happened and by the allocations, not much will happen in 2016,” he predicted.
In relation to the non-communicable diseases, Dr Anthony said the Budget needed more urgent actions, new strategies, more monies and better allocations in order to improve the services offered.