The health-care system can deliver improved services to Jamaicans and develop the medical tourism sector with some adjustments in regulations which now hinder its development, says Earl Jarrett, chief executive officer of the Jamaica National Group.
“One measure of the challenge is that more than 2,000 persons were awaiting elective surgery, some for more than two years,” he said, in an address to the Association of Surgeons in Jamaica (ASJ).
He said that changes to the tax system are needed to support more investment in hospital facilities, and adjustments in immigration rules are also required to permit more talented foreign doctors to serve in the Jamaican health system. Additionally, he urged the surgeons to ensure that the needs of the sector are heard at the national level.
“Globalisation has led to the transformation of nation states and businesses to a new reality,” Jarrett stated. “In today’s new economy, we must change our business model to repurpose Jamaica to take advantage of the services sector.”
“You must begin to think about the future and how we need to be adaptive to survive in that world,” he added. As the ASJ celebrates 59 years of existence, he declared that the 130 members need to develop a plan for its growth over the next 59 years, and ensure that its position is heard in the ongoing dialogue about the country’s economic future.
“With a growth rate of just about one per cent over the past 40 years, and high debt burden, there is no country that can have the best resources in the world,” Jarrett told the surgeons. He was addressing the ASJ’s 59th Annual Awards Banquet on May 20, at The Jamaica Pegasus hotel.
That service limitation is related to the fact that Jamaica reports approximately 0.406 physicians per 1,1000 members of the population, compared with 7.519 per 1,000 in Cuba, and 2.55 per 1,000 in the United States of America.
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