Health Ministry reduces diagnostic outsourcing

 

Minister of Health and Wellness Dr. Christopher Tufton indicates that the Government of Jamaica will be reducing the outsourcing of diagnostic services in the health sector, even as it seeks to increase diagnostic tools for the island's hospitals.

Speaking with Caribbean Money Daily in January 2025, Dr. Tufton said that outsourcing has been reduced and will continue on this trajectory, as the aim is to equip health facilities with diagnostic tools.

At the height of the public private partnership between the Ministry of Health and private diagnostic centres in November 2021, Dr. Tufton then reported that more than 40,615 diagnostic tests were in done in private facilities at a cost of $1.42 billion over two years, under the Government’s Enhancing Healthcare Services Delivery Project, which sought to improve access to services within the public healthcare system.

The project, which got under way in September 2019, was designed to collaborate with private providers of diagnostic services as part of the Ministry of Health and Wellness’ short- and medium-term strategy for the reduction in wait time at healthcare facilities and to alleviate the overcrowding in hospitals through outsourcing of those diagnostic services at no cost to the patient.

In a statement to the House of Representatives on Wednesday (November 10), Minister of Health and Wellness, Dr. the Dr. Tufton, said the Jamaicans who have benefited under the project would have otherwise had to wait for extended periods “in a public hospital on a CT scan or an X-ray [which] was either absent or not working,” adding that they were able to go to a private provider under contractual arrangement with the Government to access those diagnostic services.

The services included CT scans, MRIs, ultrasounds, mammograms, fluoroscopic studies and other diagnostic tests.

“This has been a good partnership in our estimation between the private sector and the public sector. Since signing the first set of agreements in 2019, we now have [arrangements] with 16 service providers across the island. Essentially, we have established a relationship in every parish to ensure we give coverage right across the length and breadth of Jamaica,” Dr. Tufton said.

The Health Minister noted that under this project, and in keeping with the Ministry’s objectives for equitable and universal access, poor Jamaicans no longer have to wait for lengthy periods or go without diagnostic tests.

“Even with [the] coronavirus (COVID-19), good things are happening in public health. The current cost of these tests is very significant, with an MRI costing on average in the private sector some $33,000, a CT scan costing $45,000 and an ultrasound about $8,000. So, persons would have had to find those resources,” he pointed out.

Dr. Tufton further noted that the Ministry of Health and Wellness had conducted its own assessment of the intervention, and preliminary findings indicate that due to the implementation of the project, bed-stay time has been reduced on average by two days.

“It may not sound like much [but] if you look at the data of persons who are staying in our hospitals, we have about 360,000 Jamaicans in that period and if on average you have a patient, because they can get the test done quickly, reducing their stay time from seven or eight days to six or five says, it creates the turnover and improves the efficiency for more persons to access bed space,” the Minister noted.

“We have seen the benefits of that because even though we have experienced significant overcrowding in terms of COVID wards, in terms of regular treatment, particularly for those who need diagnostic assessment, we have seen a marked reduction in that because of this programme,” he added.

Dr. Tufton further then posited that while the Ministry’s internal assessment has deemed the partnership under the project successful, “to be absolutely transparent, we intend to engage external capacity to do an assessment to ensure that the resources were spent in the right way for the right reason, benefiting the Jamaican people.”

Currently, however, this policy is being reversed as the MOH considers investment in full equipping for the health sector to be a better way to go. The MOH has been sending out several tenders inviting providers to supply the diagnostic equipment needed by the island’s hospitals.

Information source: Caribbean Money Daily and the Jamaica Information Service.

Photograph: Health Minister Dr. Christopher Tufton.

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