It is costing the Jamaican health sector a staggering $12.6 billion per year on average to cover medical care for persons needing treatment for violence-related injuries and road traffic crashes.
The figure represents 36 per cent of the annual national hospital budget, according to the latest findings of a cost of care study.
The study – consisting of data, collected during the period April-May 2014, which investigated the effect of VRIs and RTCs on the health sector – revealed that in that single year, hospitals across the country managed more than 25,000 cases of violence-related injuries, 13,000 road traffic crashes, and 500 cases of attempted suicide.
The direct medical cost associated with suicide and attempted suicide was $0.4 billion, and the productivity cost was $0.4 billion, resulting in a total direct and indirect medical cost of $0.8 billion.
In addition, it also pointed out that the direct medical cost associated with violence-related injuries stood at $3.6 billion and the indirect cost at $5 billion, while the total medical cost linked with such violence-related injuries was $8.6 billion.
Health minister Christopher Tufton stated that there was no way the health sector would be able to sustain the high level of financing for such care given the insufficient funding of his ministry.
“Public health is underfunded. We have not been able to keep up with the pace of the demands on our public-health system. I don’t think anybody can argue otherwise. I do think it’s important to be truthful and sincere about it,” he said.
“But when you place in context the preventable issues that the public-health sector has to deal with, and according to the study, total estimated cost of violence-related injuries was some 59 per cent of the total ministry of health goods and services, it again brings into sharp focus why issues of prevention, as opposed to curative issues, are key,” Tufton reasoned.
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