Opposition senator calls for more gov’t spending on healthcare

Opposition Senator Andre Worrell has called on the government to reassess its investment in the healthcare sector, arguing that more funding is needed to address the growing health challenges, especially in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Speaking during debate in the Senate on Wednesday, Worrell raised concerns about a decline in government spending on healthcare over the years. 

“There is stated within these Estimates [of Expenditure and Revenue], that at one point, the objective was to reduce the government’s contribution to health and transfer more of the payment to patients in terms of upfront costs,” he said.

However, Worrell contended, in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, that this spending pattern needs urgent revision, as has been done internationally. 

“As a result of COVID, you recognised that there are more persons with healthcare challenges. That is why you hear Barbadians complaining about the quality of service at the QEH, and then you hear the QEH begging Barbadians not to come to their Accident and Emergency Department, especially now that it’s facing an influx of persons due to vehicular accidents, the shootings and the stabbings as a result of criminal activity,” he said.

The opposition senator stressed the importance of increasing healthcare investment, pointing to global post-pandemic trends where governments are investing heavily in their healthcare systems to better prepare for future health crises.

“What I am suggesting is that we really need to look at the amount of spending in the healthcare sector,” he said, noting that while the global post-COVID standard is for countries to invest nine to 11 per cent of their GDP in healthcare, Barbados is spending only 2.71 per cent of our GDP on healthcare.

Worrell noted that this underinvestment is contributing to issues such as long wait times at the hospital’s Accident and Emergency Department and patients having to make multiple visits to polyclinics to obtain necessary medications.

While Worrell welcomed the planned upgrades to the David Thompson Polyclinic, including the introduction of ultrasound services, he stressed that similar investments must be made across the island’s polyclinic network to reduce pressure on the QEH.

“If you really want patients not to go to the Accident and Emergency Department at the QEH, they must be able to go to the polyclinics and get comparative treatment, and not be told when they get there, ‘you have to go to the QEH and get an X-ray, or you have to go to the QEH to do a blood test’,” the opposition senator argued. (SB)