Latest update October 17th, 2024 12:59 AM
Jan 10, 2011 News
Almost $100M was made available last year by the Government of Guyana through the Ministry of Health as financial support to persons requiring medical services. This measure, according to Minister of Health, Dr. Leslie Ramsammy, comes as part of the effort to provide equity in health care even as poverty reduction is embraced.
According to the Minister, 38 children received financial support last year, accounting for 9.6 percent of all persons who received this level of assistance from the government.
A total of 20 children who required assistance were from Region Four, seven from Region Three, six from Region Six, three from Region Five and two from Region 10.
But although the 2010 expenditure to provide financial support amounted to approximately $100M, the Health Minister noted that the overall cost of treatment for the services accessed, amounted to just about $185.2M last year.
“The Government, therefore, provided financial support amounting to more than 50 percent of the total cost of these services. The $185M overall cost is a subsidised cost since almost half of the services were provided in Guyana and these services are supported by the Government in order to keep cost down.”
In terms of children, the financial support amounted to $12.2M or 14 percent of the financial support provided by Government, which translated to an overall treatment cost of $32.5M, hence reflecting the fact that the financial support covered almost 38 percent of the total cost for treatment of the children. Most of this treatment, the Minister said, was for overseas intervention, which was made available through Non-Governmental Organisations.
Treatment services were obtained from several countries and financial support for medical services was mainly for those obtained through public/private partnership health programmes in Guyana. For treatment in Guyana, 236 persons were assisted, and the amount provided as financial support in this regard was $45.7M. Other countries where person got financial support to access medical services were Suriname ($3M), Canada ($1.4M), Barbados ($1.5M), Cuba ($3.7M), India ($11M), USA ($12.8M) and Trinidad and Tobago ($14.4M).
And according to Minister Ramsammy, cardiac diseases accounted for almost half of the financial support that was made available. He said that more than $43M went as financial support for cardiac interventions such as by-pass surgery with a total number of persons receiving support for heart diseases being 60. And more than 40 of these cases, he related, received services right here in Guyana.
Meanwhile, the Minister said that $10M of the financial support was directed to cancer treatment, which saw about 40 persons benefiting. Other significant amounts were for end-stage renal diseases ($9M), eye diseases ($8M) and diagnostic imaging services ($5M).
But in order to meet the overall goal of equity, Minister Ramsammy revealed that the Government of Guyana is ensuring that for services not available in the free public health sector, “we are providing financial support for persons to access medical care that is available in Guyana and overseas. More and more, this extra medical care is available in Guyana.”
Last year, he said that extra medical care amounted to almost $200M or about US$1M. Of this amount, almost $100M or about 50 percent came from the local Government and other support came from the National Insurance Scheme, families, NGOs (mainly from overseas) and support provided by individual Guyanese (local and overseas).
“What must be considered is that if the Government of Guyana did not support the development of services locally, the overall cost of about $200M would have been even higher and would have been almost $300M…Thus the real support from the Guyana Government amounted to almost $200M out of the estimated overall cost of $300M or almost 66 percent of the overall financial cost,” Minister Ramsammy said.
It is notable, he added, that before 2005, most of these treatments would have had to be obtained internationally as very little of this financial support would have been obtained locally. And the fact that almost 50 percent of the treatment last year was obtained in Guyana is a manifestation that the local health sector is providing more services to people, thereby reducing the need to travel overseas for medical attention, the Minister asserted.
He revealed that before the early 1990s, financial support for medical treatment was not included as a routine line item in the budget. As such, the only persons who obtained financial support for medical services would have been government functionaries and their families.
But since the early 1990s, the Government has added this line as a permanent feature of the Ministry of Health’s budget, Minister Ramsammy noted. As a result, from the year 2001, this amount has significantly increased.
“I am certain that even as Guyana adds more services, the demand for this support would increase. The Government intends to ensure that this line of items in the budget would continue as we ensure that even poor persons are able to access medical services that were once considered as the privilege of only wealthy persons or for senior government functionaries and their families.”
In essence, Minister Ramsammy asserted that “obtaining medical services for diseases and conditions that were once considered unavailable for the vast majority of the Guyanese people, is now considered as a fundamental human rights issue and not as a privilege of a few…Guyana is achieving equity in health and it is a remarkable achievement as we try to reduce and eliminate poverty.”
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