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Thousands benefit from free health careFriday, April 25, 2008
SPANISH TOWN, St Catherine - Over 100,000 people have benefitted so far since government instituted the no user fee policy in public hospitals three weeks ago.
Reports from the health ministry show that some 152,569 patients have benefited from the new policy - hospital registration accounted for over 90,000 while just over 70,000 were registered at type three to type five health centres. Some $24.3 million in hospital registration fees has been waived.
Dr Marion Bullock-Ducasse, senior medical officer in the Ministry of Health, made the report on the health minister's behalf Tuesday, at a handing over ceremony for the Operation Certification Programme at the Registrar General's Department, St Catherine.
She said the abolition of the user fee policy is geared at improving the lives of those who now have unrestricted access to basic health care services, noting that it was a plank on which his ministry endeavours to build a modern and sustainable health sector.
Operation Certification is an Inner City Basic Services Project (ICBSP) launched by the Jamaica Social Investment Fund (JSIF) in January in 14 inner-city communities islandwide, geared at improving access to innumerable basic services where many encounter challenges. One such service is facilitating the acquisition of civil registration documents as well as creating opportunities for inner-city persons to gain access to services and programmes provided by state agencies that will help to enhance and improve their quality of life.
During the four-month project, 1,200 birth certificates were obtained from the RGD at a subsidised cost of $100 for people who could not afford the $750 fee.
Thirty-two children from the Little Angel Early Childhood Basic School in Spanish Town received their birth certificates and are now able to complete their school registration.
Through a subsidy of $1.3 million, the 12 ICBSPs were provided with their civil registration documents.
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