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In a move to lessen theburden of responsibility for 700-plus Civil Servants, Governmentproceeds to appoint ...
A New Health Authority
The Cayman Islands ismoving towards a different form of management of medical servicesby the 1st of July as government continues efforts to better deliverhealth care while trying to trim ballooning costs in the sector.
Hon. GilbertMcLean, Mr. Ezzard Miller
"Due to the changes occurringwithin government, the economic constraints we are experiencingand the need for dynamic businesses management, I am proposingthat the Health Services Department is changed to a Health ServicesAuthority," Minister of Health Services, Hon. Gilbert McLean,told that department's staff Wednesday, 16 January.
This announcement comes on the heels ofother changes which were first heralded for the health sectorjust over a week ago when the Minister proposed a bill to theLegislative Assembly that called for an increase in fees as heexplained there was a growing chasm between administering of medicalcare and the cost of the practice.
"The new fees which are being chargedare essential in closing the wide gap to reach the point wherethe cost of services are covered. We can no longer provide serviceswithout charging. You will be aware that a government motion waspassed in the Legislative Assembly on 7 January, 2002 providingfor an increase of 30 per cent in January," Mr McLean toldthe health services staff.
That increase referred to by the Ministeralong with procedural improvements aimed at ensuring that personswho are able to pay for treatment are properly identified begantaking effect Monday, 14 January, and the second phase of theincreases is scheduled for April.
Government's move to a Health Authorityis, however, not new but represents somewhat of a return to asystem introduced more than 10 years ago under the stewardshipof then Member of the Executive Council (Minister) with responsibilityfor health services, Mr Ezzard Miller.
Mr Miller told Cayman Net News Wednesday,16 January, that he was supportive of this re-introduction ofthe move, describing the form of administration that comes withit as the only way the country's health system can be properlymanaged.
Shortly after Mr Miller lost his seat inthe Legislative Assembly and a coalition of politicians who bandedtogether to run as the National Team took the reins of governmentin 1992, the Health Authority that was brought in by Mr Millerfor just less than two years was scrapped.
Now, Mr Miller is not only supporting themid-year re-establishment of such a system, but also he is advisingthat in seeking the necessary supportive legislation Governmentadopt wholesale what existed in the months prior to 1992 as thoselaws were put in place with the same purpose and they were thoroughlyresearched.
Referring to a number of administrativeheadaches a Health Services Authority would take away from government,Mr Miller expressed amazement at the furore during the life ofthe first authority.
"It got wound up in unnecessary controversywhen I introduced it. I never understood how politics got to stirup so much controversy over a system that was tried and proven,"he said.
He referred to the Port Authority, and similarsystems of management at the Civil Aviation Department and theWater Authority as examples that the authority could work.
Now, Mr Miller believes that with the backingof legislation, government can get away from the current healthcare financial burden, which he said totalled $43 million in 2001,because that Authority will be operating more like an entity designedto cover all its costs rather than relying on supplemental income.
"It's just a way of introducing a privatesector type board of directors into a civil service structure,"he said.
He added, "This represents a paradigmshift. No longer will the focus be just for health but for generatingrevenue to pay for the health care".
Speaking to the health services staff Wednesdaycurrent Mr McLean expressed similar sentiments: "On becomingan authority financial control will have to be looked at verycarefully. There would have to be a focus on both income and expenditure.This will require an examination of the clinical services in orderto ensure that the Authority is providing cost effective services".