Deputy PM urges review of overseas medical funding for families

Deputy Prime Minister Santia Bradshaw has urged a review of financial assistance for families unable to afford overseas medical care, warning that gaps in support are costing lives as parliament considered the landmark transplant legislation.

In debate on the Human Tissue Transplant Bill in the House of Assembly, Bradshaw said the legislation should be accompanied by broader reforms to ensure no Barbadian is denied access to life-saving care because treatment is unavailable locally.

Sharing the story of a child who had been unable to access treatment for her condition for years, Bradshaw stated: “I also would want that the honorable minister and her team review the financial support available for families that are connected to this child and others who cannot afford to go outside of Barbados for these very rare cases for intervention, and we need to look at these welfare cases and scrutinize these cases, because sometimes the fact that we cannot do the interventions in Barbados is actually costing the life for a child or an adult who might be able to access that care outside of Barbados.”

The St Michael South East MP said the country could do more to support such patients by strengthening partnerships with leading medical institutions abroad.

“Maybe we need to have additional resources. Maybe we need to look at how we can collaborate with universities or medical hospitals outside of Barbados, where we have those situations, because the fact that this little girl is still alive says to me that there may, if the intervention had happened when she was six, seven years old, that she may have been able to have a better quality of life, but she was denied the ability to have it here in Barbados when an option exists outside of Barbados.

“No child, no adult should be denied at least the opportunity to be able to access that care, if we are able to team up with people outside of the country to make sure that we can get our people outside of Barbados.”

Pointing out that delays in implementing critical healthcare services can have serious consequences for patients and families, she suggested that a clear implementation roadmap must be created, particularly to ensure the necessary human resources are in place.

“Transplantation, from what I have read, requires more than just surgeons. You need nephrologists, you need anesthesiologists, you need nurses, you need laboratory scientists, you need pharmacists, you need transplant coordinators, psychologists, social workers, and many other professionals working as a team. And therefore, if there are gaps in our existing workforce, what is the plan that we have to address them? Are we expanding the specialized training? Are we building the regional and international partnerships with other transplant centers across the region and the world? “Are we ensuring that the doctors and the current panel have all the resources that they need? Because we cannot wait another 15 years before we see this acceleration.”

Throwing her full support behind “a significant and forward-looking piece of legislation”, Bradshaw said it would transform healthcare and offer hope to hundreds of Barbadians living with chronic illnesses.

But she warned that Barbados could not ignore the growing burden of chronic disease: “This legislation is particularly important when we consider it against the changing health realities across Barbados.

“We therefore have to ask ourselves a very important national question, and that question is whether we are moving fast enough to tackle the growing burden of chronic noncommunicable diseases in Barbados.”

The deputy prime minister highlighted that with 70 per centof people receiving haemodialysis in Barbados having kidney failure linked to uncontrolled diabetes and hypertension, a twopronged approach was necessary.

“On the one hand, we have to strengthen prevention. We have to take a look at health promotion, and we have to look at early intervention so that fewer Barbadians reach end-stage kidney disease. At the same time, we have to ensure that those who do develop kidney failure have access to the best possible treatment options, including transplantation,” she added.

(JB)